Danamon tops bank rankings

Danamon tops bank rankings

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Bank Danamon, the country's fifth largest bank in asset terms,
topped the lists of best performing banks recently issued by two
publications.

Danamon president director Sebastian Paredes, who accepted the
award from Investor magazine on Wednesday, said that the award
reflected the financial performance and strength of the bank.

"We have greater aspirations to serve our customers better and
maintain the continuity of our financial showing," said Paredes,
whose bank boasts assets of over Rp 60 trillion.

Danamon was recognized by the magazine as the best among
recapitalized banks with assets of at least Rp 50 trillion, Bank
Niaga as the best among recapitalized banks with assets of
between Rp 10 trillion and Rp 50 trillion, and Bank Panin as the
best among non-recapitalized banks.

Panin deputy president director Rosniati Salihin said that the
award was a validation for the bank's conservative organic growth
strategy, focused on consumer banking.

"Our aim is to be a national bank by 2010," said Rosniati,
adding that the bank, which currently has capital of Rp 5.5
trillion, should not have any difficulty in reaching the minimum
capital requirement of Rp 10 trillion.

She was referring to the grouping of domestic banks under the
central bank's Indonesian Banking Architecture (API) blueprint
into four categories -- international banks for institutions with
capital of at least Rp 50 trillion, national banks for those with
capital of between Rp 10 trillion and Rp 50 trillion, focused
banks for those with capital of between Rp 100 billion and Rp 10
trillion, and limited-scope banks for those with capital of less
than Rp 100 billion.

Earlier in the week, Infobank, a monthly magazine specializing
in banking, also gave Danamon the highest mark for banks with
assets of at least Rp 20 trillion. Danamon's score of 95.88 was
followed by Bank Rakyat Indonesia (95.36), Bank Niaga (92.98),
Citibank (92.62) and Bank Tabungan Negara (91.46).

The two magazines ranked the 132 commercial banks in Indonesia
by taking into account standard banking ratios such as capital
adequacy ratio (CAR), non-performing loan ratio, return on assets
ration, return on equity ratio, loan to deposit ratio, net
interest margin and other criteria.