SCB employees booted from Bank Bali's headquarters

SCB employees booted from Bank Bali's headquarters

JAKARTA (JP): In a sign of the escalating tension between Bank
Bali staff and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) employees, staff in
charge of managing Bank Bali were ejected on Thursday from the
bank's headquarters.

The eviction, which took place at about 2 o'clock in the
afternoon, was the most serious action by the protesting Bank
Bali staff against SCB since the U.K.-based bank was given the
authority by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to
manage the former late in July.

"We'll kick them out again if they dare to come in tomorrow,"
said one angry Bank Bali protester.

After staging a demonstration at noon, some Bank Bali staff
went to SCB staff offices on the 9th, 17th and 23rd floors of the
bank headquarters and forced them to leave the building.

SCB has 60 Jakarta staff, including 48 expatriates.

"We want SCB out of Bank Bali," said Bank Bali manager Eddy
Kurniawan.

"They come to us like a colonialist. They're very arrogant
English people," he said.

Eddy said the SCB team had failed to manage Bank Bali during
the three month period. He said this was reflected by the
increase in the Bank Bali recapitalization cost, from an earlier
estimate of Rp 2.6 trillion to Rp 4.3 trillion.

Eddy also accused the SCB of conspiring with IBRA to take over
Bank Bali and eject the bank's former owner, the Rudy Ramli
family.

IBRA signed an investment agreement with SCB in July, in which
the latter would buy a 20 percent stake in Bank Bali to help
finance the publicly listed bank's recapitalization program.

But SCB's plan to take a stake in Bank Bali have proved far
from easy.

At the end of October, protesting Bank Bali staff members
signed a motion of no-confidence in the SCB team.

The Thursday demonstration was made after SCB decided on
Wednesday to fire one Bank Bali staff member and suspended 47
other staff on grounds that they were involved in arranging a
campaign of noncooperation with SCB.

IBRA said on Thursday in a statement that it approved SCB's
decision.

But IBRA chairman Glenn S. Yusuf warned SCB to cooperate with
Bank Bali staff and to act wisely in relation to the changing
situation and conditions at Bank Bali.

"Incompetent members of the (SCB) management team must be
replaced," Glenn said.

A foreign banker in Jakarta said he feared that the escalating
tension between SCB and Bank Bali staff had the potential to deal
a serious blow to the country's bank restructuring program which
needed the role of foreign banks to ensure its success.

"This kind of development would discourage foreign investors
to enter into the country's banking industry," the banker said.

"I'm quite surprised though on how the Bank Bali staff remain
loyal to Rudy Ramli," he said, referring to the former owner and
president of Bank Bali, who has now become a defendant in the
high-profile Bank Bali scandal.

Rudy is currently in hospital and is said to be being treated
for depression.

Eddy denied charges that staff opposition to SCB was in order
to defend Rudy.

He also said Bank Bali staff did not reject foreign investors
or the government bank recapitalization program.

"We support the government program. We welcome the entry of
foreign investors because we realize their important (financing)
role. But we despise arrogant investors like SCB," Eddy said.
(rei/05)