Sigit helps turn around BII

Sigit helps turn around BII

Sigit Pramono has proven himself as a reliable banker when the
government trusted him to pilot the ailing Bank Internasional
Indonesia in September 2002, after the government rescued the
bank from the late 1990s financial crisis.

When Sigit first took the job, the bank's capital adequacy
ratio (CAR) was -51.6 percent with a non-performing loan (NPL)
level of 62.2 percent.

But now, BII, the former financial flagship of the Sinar Mas
Group conglomerate, has a CAR standing at 24.49 percent and NPL
at 7.55 percent as of the first nine months of this year. The
bank's net profit also surged to Rp 221 billion (US$26 million)
from Rp 30.6 billion a year earlier.

At present, BII is the country's sixth largest bank in terms
of assets.

Sigit was born in Batang, Central Java on Nov. 14, 1958. After
graduating from his study in corporate management at Diponegoro
University in 1983, he decided to engage in the banking business
by joining the now dissolved state-owned Bank Exim in 1984.

From 1985 to 1987, Sigit was an assistant manager for domestic
banking division, before becoming an assistant manager in
treasury and international banking division from 1987 to 1988.

Sigit also had experiences in the non-banking industry from
1988 to 1992.

In 1993, Sigit returned to the banking business when he served
as vice president director for Bank Merincorp, a subsidiary of
Exim, before returning to Exim in 1997.

In Exim, he was posted as head of the loan syndication
department, and a year later served as division head in the loan
remedy division.

When Exim and three other state-owned banks merged to become
Bank Mandiri in 1999, Sigit was placed as division head in the
loan work out division for a brief period, and later on trusted
as a senior vice president for the credit restructuring unit
August 2001, and as a senior vice president for credit recovery
group from August 2001 to May 2002.

The government afterwards appointed Sigit as head of the
restructuring and management team for BII, before taking the
bank's top position. -- JP