Lippo bank responds
In response to Mrs. Yuni Trianingsih's letter to Bisnis Indonesia also covered by The Jakarta Post on Jan. 16, 2001, please allow me to respond on behalf of Lippo Bank.
We at Lippo Bank appreciate customer comments because it highlights the continual need to improve our services, products, and communication with our customers.
As to the issue of a 3 percent charge imposed by the Mandala Airline Agent, I am pleased to confirm that Lippo Bank Visa Electron cards have "no" client charges. Banks earn revenue from card transactions by receiving a "Merchant Discount" on the product ticket price so there should not be any additional charges added to the normal price of the airline ticket. The merchant discount goes largely to the bank through whom the merchant has processed the transaction not the card "issuing" Bank which in this case is Lippo Bank. I can only suggest that Mrs. Yuni should address the charges issue with the travel agent concerned.
Mrs. Yuni should also be pleased to note that Lippo Bank is the only major bank which charges "no" fees on its Savings Account products. Our client base increased by 500,000 customers since July 1999 through the success of our "Shining Savings Program" which promoted our zero fee savings products.
As to the non-operation of our ATMs in Melawai and two other centers, we have reviewed the ATM availability and all three ATMs were fully operational. Their non-availability over the 24 hours on Dec. 18, 2000 was only 45 minutes. That being said I must sincerely apologize to Mrs. Yuni and other customers who were also inconvenienced as we did have a processing delay caused by our operations department's decision to process a very large amount of other data in preparation for the year end. This resulted in time delays for the ATM payment requests being longer than normal. If the request is not processed within 60 seconds, the withdrawal request will be "declined" and it may have appeared that the ATM was not working.
Currently Lippo Bank has 268 ATMs. Throughout last year, we prioritized efficiency and performance improvements for our ATM Network. Availability and performance improved significantly from pre 1999 levels. Like all banks in Indonesia, we have more work to do. That being said, Lippo Bank will be introducing some major improvements to our ATM Network, features and performance this year. Throughout 2001, we will introduce 400 new "State of the Art" ATMs into our network, increasing our network size to 700. All existing ATMs will be upgraded. When combined with the ALTO network, we will offer our clients access to over 2,500ATMs throughout Indonesia.
Lippo Bank openly admits that we are not perfect and problems do arise. However, Lippo Bank and myself are fully committed to improving all areas of our operations. Our objective is to become the first Indonesian Bank to introduce "International Best Practice Standards" in all areas of the Bank. The process of improvement commenced in January 2000. Considerable progress has already been achieved. Lippo Bank is today trading profitability with very strong liquidity and capital positions.
I can assure all of Lippo Bank's customers that our new logo and catch phrase " A Change That Makes A Real difference", reflects our commitment to improve, and reflects the very real achievements made last year. Please be assured that the improvement process in ongoing.
IAN B. CLYNE
President Director and CEO
Lippo Bank
Tangerang, West Java