Permata names Stewart Hall as head, replacing Agus

Permata names Stewart Hall as head, replacing Agus

Bloomberg Jakarta

PT Bank Permata, an Indonesian lender controlled by Standard Chartered Plc. and its local partner, named Stewart Hall as its new head, giving him the job of steering the bank through increasing competition.

Hall, the chief executive of Standard Chartered Plc.'s Indonesian unit, replaces Agus D.W. Martowardojo, who was named president-director of PT Bank Mandiri, the nation's largest lender, earlier this month amid a lending probe.

Standard Chartered and Indonesian auto distributor PT Astra International control the lender.

"The appointment of Stewart Hall reflects the high commitment of Standard Chartered and Astra International in consortium to develop Permata and make it one of the biggest banks in coming years," Hans Theikuhl, a director at Permata, said in a statement in Jakarta on Thursday.

It's the third change of president in the past two weeks at a lender in Indonesia, where the government is trying to clean up the banking industry as it attempts to recoup Rp 450 trillion (US$47 billion) it spent to bail out lenders after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The government on May 17 named Sofyan Basir to head PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia, the country's fourth-largest lender, replacing Rudjito.

A day earlier, Martowardojo replaced Mandiri's E.C.W. Neloe, who has been detained by Indonesian prosecutors amid a probe into more than Rp 1 trillion of loans.

The new bank heads face the challenge of boosting profitability as competition intensifies for customers and the pace of credit growth slows in an economy forecast to expand as much as 6.2 percent this year, the most since 1996.

Bank Permata expects a 25 percent increase in total loans this year, half the pace of 2004, Chief Financial Officer Hans Theilkuhl said on May 23.