BankPos aims for customer expansion

JAKARTA (JP): PT Bank Pos Nusantara (BankPos), which was officially launched here yesterday, targets to significantly increase its customers to at least one million by 2002 from 3,000 currently registered, the bank's president Robert Leman said yesterday.

BankPos, previously called Bank Rajawali, is 64.67 percent owned by PT Telekomindo Primabhakti, 10 percent by state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia, 10 percent by the pension fund foundation of Pos Indonesia, 5 percent by the pension fund foundation of state-owned PT Telkom, 2.25 percent by PT Dhanaswara Utama and 8.08 percent by PT Telekomindo Kapital.

The bank was formerly 97 percent owned by Telekomindo Primabhakti and 3 percent by Dhanaswara Utama. The two companies and Telekomindo Kapital are controlled by businessman Peter Sondakh.

According to Leman, BankPos now has Rp 535 billion total assets, increasing from Rp 505 billion (US$57.4 million) as of December 1996.

"The capital is now Rp 150 billion, up from Rp 100 billion at the end of last year," he said.

The bank's profit reached Rp 7.8 billion as of last month, a 85.71 percent increase from Rp 4.2 billion at the end of 1996, he added.

"With Pos Indonesia's participation as a shareholder, we will soon open 57 branches nationally by the end of this year," Leman said, adding that the bank targeted to have Rp 3.0 trillion in assets by 2002.

He said that BankPos was ready to compete with 239 banks currently operating throughout Indonesia. BankPos would target small and medium enterprises and other potential customers in the medium and low income groups, he said. (icn)