House laments bank litigators

JAKARTA (JP): The law, security and information commission of the House of Representatives has joined the attack on Indonesian creditors who prefer settling business disputes in court in Singapore though most lawyers have blamed the trend on the distrust of the commercial court in Jakarta.

A commission member, Rini Amaludin of the Golkar faction, commented in a statement on Tuesday that banks and finance companies should first bring any disputes they have with debtors to the commercial court in Jakarta.

Rini was commenting on the civil law suit filed by Bali International Finance, a unit of Bank Bali in Jakarta, with the high court in Singapore, against Bambang Sutrisno, a former shareholder of the now defunct Bank Surya.

Sutrisno guaranteed a syndicated loan from nine domestic and foreign creditors to PT Surya Supratama Finance managed by Bali International. The litigation was triggered by Surya Supratama's failure to repay the loan on maturity.