Bank Panin ups reserves

Bank Panin ups reserves

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed Bank Panin reported a pretax and
reserves profit of Rp 489 billion (US$56.86 million) in 1999, but
will not pay a dividend.

The management said at a recent shareholders meeting it had to
increase the bank's reserves for productive assets by Rp 451
billion to Rp 875 billion, in anticipation of the continuing
uncertainty in the industry which might have a negative impact on
the quality of its productive assets.

The bank also said it would continue to lend to the consumer
sector and mid-size businesses, and to finance international
trade.

Bank Panin is one of the country's healthier banks with a
capital adequacy ratio of 71.9 percent last year and 67.6 percent
as of March this year, well above the government-set minimum of 4
percent. (rei)