Hashim to maintain position as BPS's main shareholder

JAKARTA (JP): Hashim Djojohadikusumo will maintain his position as the majority shareholder in Bank Papan Sejahtera despite his withdrawal from the supervisory board, the bank's president Al Njoo said yesterday.

Al said Hashim, who controls investment company Tunamas Paduarta, resigned as the bank's chief commissioner because he was too busy to manage the supervisory board.

"His nonactiveness in the bank's supervisory board is due solely to his current bustling activities," he said.

Al dismissed an allegation the central bank, Bank Indonesia, ordered Hashim's resignation for his failure to manage several banks, including Bank Industri, well.

"I don't see any relationship between the two issues," Al said after launching the bank's credit card service.

Hashim, the son of noted economist Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, bought 19.8 percent of the bank in late 1995, 11 percent of this was from Jopie Widjaja who had taken over the stock from the bank's founders a few months earlier.

He resigned as chief commissioner on Aug. 23 last year, but the resignation was not made public until last September.

Besides Bank Papan, Hashim has shares in Bank Universal and Bank Pelita. He, who is the largest shareholder in Bank Papan, is also the president of several other companies, including PT Semen Cibinong,

Yesterday, Bank Papan launched a credit car service in cooperation with Visa and a 20-hour telephone service to accompany the credit card service.

Al said the bank spent about Rp 10 billion on the credit card and telephone service operation called Pulsa Papan. They start May 1.

He said the bank expected to net at least 50,000 credit card customers this year in Jakarta, Bandung, West Java, Semarang, Central Java, and Surabaya, East Java.

He said the bank would launch the credit cards in Medan, North Sumatra, and other cities outside of Java next year.

"There is a big market for credit cards in Indonesia, as it is becoming a common means of payment," he said.

Only 1.3 million Indonesians have credit cards.

He said the credit card service would contribute between 15 percent and 20 percent of the bank's total income this year. (02)