Identifying ailing banks

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), which functions as a sort of hospital for ailing banks, must be able to cure its patients of the various afflictions they are currently suffering. IBRA's task of having to detect at an early stage anything improper about any of the banks operating in this country is certainly not an easy one.

And that is not the only challenge it is facing. The government's intention to make public the names of the 40 banks that are said to be having problems must be carried out in a clear-cut manner.

The government might find it worthwhile to reconsider its plan to publish the names of the ailing banks. Although we agree with the plan, it is important that, at the every least, IBRA prepares bank ratings on the basis of international standards. Only after this has been done should the government publish the ailing banks' names -- in sufficient detail and in a manner that will convince the public of the sincerity of its guarantee that all funds deposited in local banks are safe.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta