Holiday impact on bank customers limited

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The long holiday this weekend will affect the banking industry in providing services to its customers, but several anticipatory steps have been taken to minimize the impact, the country's two largest banks said on Tuesday.

Bank Mandiri and Bank Central Asia (BCA) told The Jakarta Post that the impact would be limited as the government had given advance warning before the holiday, which had enabled banks to make adequate preparations.

"We expect this (the holiday) not to cause too much trouble for customers because we have anticipated the long holiday. Cash supplies for our ATMs, for instance, will be guaranteed.

"We've been increasing the supply since last week. Our central computer will identify which ATM is running out of cash, and then will quickly order additional supplies to be delivered," BCA managing director Jahja Setiaatmadja told The Jakarta Post, referring to the bank's Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).

Jahja added that BCA currently runs a total of 2,340 ATMs across the country, with capacities ranging from Rp 400 million to Rp 600 million for each machine.

He was responding to questions on the bank's readiness to cope with the possible effects of the four-day holiday weekend, starting Thursday.

"Aside from the ATMs, we also have an Internet banking system, which is open 24 hours a day; not to mention products like credit cards and debit cards, which can be used at any time," Jahja said.

Sharing Jahja's view was Koen Sardjono Sadria, a spokesman for Bank Mandiri, the country's largest bank in term of its assets.

Koen said that aside from ensuring the smooth supply of cash to its 1567 ATMs across the country, Bank Mandiri would also place 24-hour operators -- even over the holiday weekend -- who would always be on call to respond to possible complaints from customers calling into the bank's telephone switchboards.

"They will always be standing by -- if there is any difficulties with our ATMs anywhere, call our service center and we'll take care of the problem," Koen told the Post in an e-mail statement.