Govt refuses to honor some accounts
Tony Hotland, Jakarta
The government announced on Monday that it would not honor about Rp 153.75 billion (about US$17 million) in accounts in the closed-down banks Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and Bank Asiatic because they fell in the "non-guaranteed" category.
The accounts were not guaranteed by the government because they were owned by parties affiliated to the banks or gave depositers interest rates above the guaranteed maximum rate set by the central bank, Isa Rachmatarwata, head of the bank guarantees unit at the Ministry of Finance, said.
The ministry said only 65 percent and 87 percent of verified accounts in the BDB and Bank Asiatic respectively were guaranteed by the government.
Up until Monday, the government had paid about Rp 799.32 billion (US$89.2 million) for the guaranteed accounts in the two banks out of Rp 1.408 trillion prepared by Bank Negara Indonesia.
Isa said 79,180 (worth Rp 894.97 billion) out of 121,104 verified accounts in BDB and 2,000 accounts (worth Rp 508.4 billion) out of 2,289 verified accounts in Asiatic had been included in the guaranteed list.
In BDB, there were 929 non-guaranteed accounts (Rp 119.4 billion), 39,764 unresolved accounts (Rp 515.71 billion), and 32 unverified accounts (Rp 90 million).
Unresolved accounts are those that do not have complete documents or are suspected to be related to fictitious bonds, while unverified accounts are those which have no supporting documents at all.
In Asiatic, 22 non-guaranteed accounts (Rp 34.35 billion) and 267 unresolved accounts (Rp 396.26 billion) were recorded.
Isa explained that the non-guaranteed accounts would be processed by the liquidation team of each bank.
The unresolved accounts owned by persons who are also debtors will be settled by offsetting their debts from their savings. If there is more left from the savings after being offset, the leftover will be paid through the blanket guarantee program.
The status of the small number of unverified accounts would be determined once the supporting documents are complete, Isa said.
Depositors of BDB and Asiatic can visit any branch of the two banks to claim their money by bringing the original and a copy of their identification cards and proof of their account ownership.
The documents will be cross-checked with the verification reports from the Development and Finance Control Board.
The Ministry of Finance has decided to continue with its decision to pay the depositors of BDB despite a court ruling that put on hold the liquidation of the bank.
The Administrative Court has issued an injunction to temporarily suspend the revocation by Bank Indonesia of BDB's operating license.
Former BDB management say the ruling means they can take back control of the bank, which is currently managed by a government- sanctioned liquidation team.
However, Bank Indonesia has made a move to counter the injunction. The case is still being examined by the Administrative Court.
The central bank closed down BDB and Asiatic, owned by two families connected by marriage, in May, due to their worsening finances resulting from illegal transactions that involved bad loans worth Rp 1.2 trillion.