Perbanas urged to hold special congress soon

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)