Perbanas urged to hold special congress soon

JAKARTA (JP): Some members of the Federation of Private Domestic Banks (Perbanas) have urged the federation's executive board to hold a special congress to change the its leadership.

Haga Bank's director, Timothy Marnandus, said on Saturday that it was very urgent to appoint a new chairman and secretary- general to fill the position left vacant following the resignation of Perbanas' chairman Subowo.

"We want the executive board to hold an extraordinary congress as soon as possible," Timothy told Antara news agency after a meeting with Subowo and the chairman of Perbanas' advisory board Thomas Suyatno.

"In the meeting, we also discussed our complaints concerning the government's uncertain policies in handling the banking industry," he said.

Timothy said the advisory board agreed with the special congress and proposed the meeting to be held on Sept. 18.

He said that Perbanas' members still wanted Subowo to chair the federation but the chairman refused his nomination.

Subowo, a Bank Central Asia (BCA) executive, said he would not run in the next election because under the federation's statutes, members and executives should come from private banks.

BCA is controlled by Lim Sioe Liong and family but its management has been taken over by the Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency because the liquidity credits it received from Bank Indonesia, the central bank, have exceeded the limit. (gis)