Four banks plan to merge

Four banks plan to merge

JAKARTA (JP): The publicly listed Bank Mashill Utama, Bank
Jayabank International, Bank Artamedia Indonesia and Bank Ciputra
announced yesterday their intention to merge to enable them to
meet new capital requirements.

Bank Mashil said that under an agreement signed yesterday it
would become the surviving bank in the merger, with combined
assets of Rp 3.6 trillion (US$240 million) and total equity of Rp
563 billion.

Early this year the government introduced a regulation that
commercial banks are required to have minimum capital of Rp 1
trillion by the end of this year, Rp 2 trillion by the end of
2000 and Rp 3 trillion by 2003.

However, under a recently issued regulation, sound banks --
those which have cleared their nonperforming loans -- will be
allowed to operate with paid-up capital of Rp 250 billion by the
end of this year.

The statement said the merger agreement was still awaiting
approval from the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) and
the central bank, Bank Indonesia. (aly)