Danamon committed to customers with new vision, mission

Danamon committed to customers with new vision, mission

By Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): Commitment in consumer service industries will
not suffice a company to prove itself as being a preferred
choice. Customer loyalty will have its say.

PT Bank Danamon Indonesia is one of several parties,
particularly in the banking industry, which have faced their
toughest experience since the economic crisis but which have not
been forsaken by their customers.

In like manner, Bank Danamon aims to focus its services on
customer satisfaction with its new mission and vision.

Bank Danamon's Vice President Director Armand B. Arief said,
"Despite the name, Bank Danamon is a reborn corporation with the
new shareholders and a new management."

He said that with the new management, the bank had set its new
mission and vision.

"Our vision is to be the best nationwide bank which focuses on
customers' needs. This is supported with our network which
spreads to all provinces across Indonesia," he said.

"As a retail banking concern, Bank Danamon's vision is to be
the best retail banking player acknowledged by both customers and
competitors with a strong commitment to continually fulfill
middle, low, to affluent customers' needs and expectations in the
most efficient and profitable manner."

He said that the new mission and vision were being
accomplished through the highest standards of integrity,
professionalism and transparency.

It was necessary to achieve the vision by increasing
shareholders' value, customer satisfaction and staff performance,
he added.

Implementation

Bank Danamon's plan is to focus on its customers for products
and services strategy. To give the best service, Bank Danamon
develops products and services which satisfy market needs and
continuously adds new features.

A pipeline management plays its role here to support the new
or upgraded product launches based on the priority of customers'
needs. Research was also conducted in this scheme.

Another concept being developed is product simplification by
concentrating on products and services which give added value to
customers. Therefore, Bank Danamon hopes the offered products and
services will be perceived as superior products and services
which fulfill the needs of most customers.

"We are very customer focused. Anything that we do or plan
will be based on our consumers' needs. In general, our customers
are very loyal. This was proven during the crisis, when most of
our customers decided to only reduce their account balances, not
to quit," said Armand.

Bank Danamon currently holds more than two million customers.

"Most of all, we maintain customer loyalty through a selling
based on relationship and service excellence concept. We really
value our relationship with our customers. We also show our
appreciation to our customers through an appreciation program or
'Thank You Program' such as the Lucky Draw Program, namely
Kejutan Prima-Primadana 1999 with a total prize value of Rp 1.5
billion. This is a commitment to the customers, and we will
continue to run this program with bigger prizes," he said.

Bank Danamon has a huge distribution channel spread over
Indonesia.

"With 500 branches and more than 700 ATMs in all regions, we
believe that we are very close to the customer. We continuously
communicate with our customers and prospects through advertising,
promotions and customer-gathering type of activities," Armand
said.

Support

Armand said that people are the key asset to making Bank
Danamon's vision come true. Therefore, the bank has established
the new value as follows: integrity, professionalism and
transparency, which must be implemented in all thoughts,
decisions and actions by all employees. These are the elements
every employee must have.

"We are all aware of what has happened in the banking sector.
It will take all of our energy and efforts to fix what has
happened in the past. However, if we are committed to really
focusing on having a prudent banking practice in Indonesia this
is not something impossible to achieve," said Armand, adding that
human resources play a vital role.

He said that Bank Danamon had done its homework and improved
most areas of its banking operation. "We have streamlined our
organization successfully in terms of the number of people and
number of branches.

"To form the working culture and attitude, Bank Danamon
conducts a People Development Program and integrated training.
Bank Danamon also reorganized the management with its 'Right
Sizing Program' and identifies employees' competence through an
'Employee Potential Assessment' program," he said.

The result of all this effort is that Bank Danamon is now
supported by the best and the most professional employees with
top characteristics: adaptable, flexible, highly driven, team-
oriented, multiskilled and top performers.

Products

Bank Danamon offers various loan products, with a target of Rp
1 trillion rupiah for the first semester, including corporate,
commercial and consumer loans. Bank Danamon concentrates on
retail products as a development basis to reach the bank's new
vision: the best nationwide bank.

Consumer loans are available for home and car loans, which are
developed to meet individual loan requirements and designed with
high flexibility in terms of time and payment method.

Since the public has several different needs, Bank Danamon
offers various facilities, including financial schemes, ATM
cards, transactional services, credit cards as well as strategic
alliances.

The credit cards are issued in collaboration with Visa and
MasterCard and are available in gold and regular/classic.

Financial products include Primadana, Primagold and
Primadolar. Primadana is a prime savings product and reaches a
significant funding composition. It aims to fulfill customers',
Bank Danamon plans to keep holding lucky draws which have
attractive prizes.

Qualified

Bank Danamon launched its initial public offering in 1989,
floating 12 million shares. The monetary crisis in 1997 and 1998
has deeply affected the banking industry in Indonesia. The impact
has been decreasing public confidence toward the domestic banking
sector, following the closure of several banks.

The situation also affected Bank Danamon's performance when it
was then taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency
(IBRA) in April 1998, and the government assigned a "caretaker
team" from BRI to manage the bank. The assurance that the company
would continue to operate came from a government announcement on
Aug. 21, 1998. And later on through an extraordinary shareholder
meeting on March 30, 1999, a new management was appointed,
consisting of professional bankers: Milan R. Shuster as President
Director; Armand B. Arief as Vice President Director; and Gayatri
R. Angreni, Hendrawan Tranggana, Mahendra Wardhana and Muliadi
Rahardja as Directors.

The bank was required to set out an action plan to improve its
soundness as well as repay its debts to Bank Indonesia, the
central bank. As of Dec. 31, 1999, the bank is 99 percent owned
by the government.

Financial conditions of the bank are getting better with each
passing year. As of December 31, 1999, the bank's asset is Rp 27
trillion (unaudited).

"We are no longer experiencing a negative spread. Our expense
is improving on a regular basis. We started to lend out in
December 1999. Our funding composition is also improving
steadily, resulting in the bank having a more acceptable level of
funds, the outcome of which allows us to provide an attractive
lending rate to customers," Armand said.

Bank Danamon's performance is increasing with each passing
month in every single aspect, such as funding, lending,
operational, distribution and control. In addition, the public
trust that the bank is experiencing is also increasing, which
indicates that the customers like to bank with Bank Danamon and
trust their banking needs to be served by Bank Danamon.

Looking ahead

Now we are ready to issue credit to any eligible business or
individual according to their needs, said Armand. "We have been
appointed as the core bank by the government to help the payment
system mechanism in Indonesia as well as contributing to a
healthier banking industry in Indonesia. We are committed to do
this and will continue expanding with prudent banking services."

While Bank Danamon actively serves its customers through its
saving, checking and time deposit products, it is also active in
conducting research and studies to learn more about what
customers really need. There are some new products in the bank's
pipeline and they will be ready to be introduced when the time is
right.

In electronic banking, or e-banking, Bank Danamon is actively
improving its ATM performance and will add new features to its
ATM services, such as bill payments. Also, the bank has already
established its Internet-Based information site for customers at
http://www.danamon.co.id.

In the future, Bank Danamon will also provide transactional
convenience for customers through real-time, online banking
services on the Internet and with phone-banking.

Currently, phone-banking is available around the clock to
facilitate customers' inquiries or complaints.

"We will further enhance our phone-banking facilities and will
add more conveniences for customers to carry out transactions
with us electronically," said Armand.

As part of the domestic banking recapitalization scheme, Bank
Danamon and PDFCI merged last December.

Armand said that after merging with Bank PDFCI, Bank Danamon
continued to work on the merger with eight other banks. Bank
Danamon considers the merger as a major task.

"We must blend a variety of cultures and the way of doing
things with our merger partners in addition to all other
operational and business issues. But we are optimistic that the
process will be completed within the set time frame with good
results," said Armand.

"When completed, we'll most likely be the fourth biggest bank
in Indonesia." He said that to attract more customers, Bank
Danamon would focus on each individual branch and ask each branch
to optimize its presence in the designated areas.

"So we are very customer-focused. We are also committed to
providing excellent service to each customer. We believe that the
customer is the most important person in the branch and we will
consistently improve our services for the best of our customers."

Bank Danamon is very concerned with social issues. The bank
plays its role of being a good corporate citizen. The bank has
conducted several social activities involving the public,
including a painting exhibition, in which some of the proceeds
were donated to charity. In the future, the bank will continue to
be involved more in social and community activities.