BII launches new ATM card

BII launches new ATM card

JAKARTA: Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII), in cooperation
with MasterCard International, has launched its new automatic
teller machine (ATM) card, ComboCard.

ComboCard customers can choose to authorize the use of their
cards by entering their personal identification number (PIN) (in
Maestro banking network) or by signing the bills (in MasterCard
banking network), according to a BII press release.

With this new product, customers can do transactions through
700 BII ATMs, more than 3,000 ALTO ATMs (free of charge) and
about 80,000 Cirrus ATMs.

Customers can also have payment facilities if they shop in
stores having the MasterCard logo, around the world.

To have ComboCard, new customers have to open a BII savings
account, Superpundi.

BII customers, now holding the bank's Superkasa, Edisi Khusus,
Superpundi Gold and Superdollar cards may still use their cards
or replace them with ComboCards. But, gradually, the bank will
replace all the cards with ComboCards. --JP

;Agencies
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CorporarteBrief-Schrempp-CEO-Germany
Schrempp top-paid CEO in Germany
JP/14/brief

Schrempp top-paid CEO in Germany

HAMBURG, Germany: DaimlerChrysler chairman Juergen Schrempp
was the highest-paid chief executive of a DAX-listed company last
year with an estimated income of 10.8 million euros (US$12.6
million), the business publication Manager Magazin said on
Thursday.

The magazine said that since most German firms do not report
the salaries of their top executives, it had commissioned the
auditing company Ernst & Young to provide estimates of their
salaries and bonuses such as stock options.

After Schrempp, the next highest-paid chief executives among
the 30 companies in the DAX index were SAP boss Henning Kagermann
(7.5 million euros) and Deutsche Bank head Josef Ackermann (6.95
million euros), the magazine said.

The average salary, excluding stock options, of chief
executives of the DAX companies was 2.12 million euros, according
to the Ernst & Young estimates. -- DPA

;Agencies
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CorporarteBrief-SIA-staff
SIA lays off 414 staff
JP/14/brief

SIA lays off 414 staff

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) will retrench 414
employees to help "save the company" after losing over US$200
million due to the impact of SARS on the travel industry,
officials said on Thursday.

"We have always said that we would consider retrenchment as a
measure of last resort. I am sad to say that we are now at that
point," SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng said in a statement
amid market speculation of more lay-offs.

"It is unfortunate but there is no alternative if we are to
ensure that the company survives this downturn and position
ourselves to compete effectively in the marketplace of the
future," Chew said.

The retrenched employees, all-Singapore-based, represent 1.5
percent of the local staff of the SIA group, which includes
engineering, airline services, cargo and property operations as
well as SilkAir, a regional carrier.

No pilots or cabin crew were laid off. SIA is currently locked
in a dispute with the pilots' union, which is resisting hefty
salary cuts and no-pay leaves. -- AFP

;Agencies
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CorporarteBrief-BMW-stop-assembly
BMW to stop assembly lines
JP/14/brief

BMW to stop assembly lines

MUNICH, Germany: BMW, maker of luxury German cars, said on
Thursday it would stop some of its production lines next week
when they run out of key parts because of an increasingly bitter
strike at suppliers in eastern Germany.

Germany's most powerful union, IG Metall, is demanding a
reduction in working hours in the east from 38 to 35 hours per
week without loss of pay, in line with the practice in western
Germany.

Employers say the change would raise their per-hour rates by
8.6 percent.

The VME employers' federation said on Thursday a labor court
had slapped IG Metall chief Klaus Zwickel with a personal 25,000-
euro (US$29,500) fine for ordering picketing in defiance of a
court order.

An IG Metall spokeswoman attacked employers, saying they
should be negotiating, not resorting to the courts. She said 15
plants in the east were shut on Thursday by the rolling strikes,
which began two weeks ago.

In Munich, BMW personnel chief Ernst Baumann said the
stockmarket- listed company would have to review its policy of
investing in the former communist east if the strike succeeded.
BMW has one factory at Leipzig with 1,000 staff. -- DPA

;Agencies
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CorporarteBrief-Fiat-cut-jobs
Fiat to cut 8,000-10,000 jobs
JP/14/brief

Fiat to cut 8,000-10,000 jobs

MILAN, Italy: A restructuring plan by the Italian industrial
group Fiat calls for 8,000-10,000 job cuts, mainly outside Italy,
the economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore said on Thursday, without
giving a source.

According to a plan presented to the government on Wednesday,
Fiat also intends to invest the equivalent of five percent of its
sales in research and development.

The loss-making company aims to break even within a couple of
years, after posting a record net loss of 3.948 billion euros
(US$4.619 billion) last year, the report added.

The daily La Repubblica said Fiat would meet with creditor
banks in the coming days, adding there was speculation the
company could seek a capital increase of at least four billion
euros rather than the two-three billion rumored previously.

Under terms of a three-year loan signed in 2002, banks are
reimbursed in Fiat ordinary shares at a price equal to the
average of 15.5 euros and the average of Fiat's share price over
the preceding months. -- AFP