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.