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