House laments bank litigators

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.