IBRA wants more seats on Lippo boards

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) wants the majority of seats on both Bank Lippo's board of management and board of commissioners to better reflect the bank's ownership.

IBRA chairman Syafruddin Temenggung said that despite holding a majority stake, the agency had never had a majority of the seats on either the board of directors or board of commissioners.

"We'll seek five or six seats on the bank's boards of directors and commissioners. Regarding the board of directors, we want the presidency, vice presidency, and some other seats," he told reporters.

The proposal will be presented at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting of the bank on Tuesday.

Syafruddin refused, however, to elaborate as to which positions the agency wanted on the board of commissioners.

IBRA, despite owning around 59 percent of the bank, has only three representatives on the boards of directors and commissioners. Currently, the chairman of the board of commissioners is Mochtar Riady (former owner), while I Made Mantera is the president of the bank.

IBRA has repeatedly said that a major shake-up in the bank's leadership was inevitable at the much-anticipated meeting as responsibility had to be accepted for alleged financial frauds that have resulted in months of furious criticism from the public.

The manipulation accusations first emerged late last year after the bank issued two different financial reports while claiming that both had been audited.

This led supervisory institutions, including the Capital Market Supervisory Body (Bapepam), Bank Indonesia and the Ministry of Finance, to conduct probes into the affair.

As a result, sanctions were imposed by Bapepam on the bank's management.