Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Bank Indonesia or BI (central bank) former deputy governor Aulia Pohan said the merger of three banks into Bank Century was decided at a BI board of governors meeting (RDG).

Pohan made the statement before the House Inquiry Committee on Bank Century at the House of Representatives (DPR) building here on Tuesday (Jan 5), adding that there was no manipulation in the licensing process of the three banks merger, namely Bank Pikko, CIC Bank, and Bank Danpac.

"The merger was made because the three banks were owned by the same owner who had purchased them through the stock exchange and the decision was made by the RDG through deliberations to reach a consensus rather than through voting," he said.
Aulia Pohan was questioned about Bank Indonesia`s decision to merge the three banks into Bank Century which later became problematic.

The House Inquiry Committee is investigating alleged violations in the Rp6.7 trillion Bank Century bailout.

Pohan explained about the possibility of mistakes or abuses committed in the report of the board of governors` meeting made by BI`s deputy director of supervision I Sabar Anton Tarihoran.

"I do not know if Sabar Anton Tarihoran manipulated the report on board of governors` meeting on the three banks` merger. All I know is that he sat in at every meeting to take notes and later distributed copies of his report to all deputy governors so that they all knew the results of the meeting. I think mistakes or manipulations could not have happened because the process was quite transparent," he said.

The former BI deputy governor for supervisory affairs explained that from the decision of the merger on November 27, 2001, Anwar Nasution (Former Senior Deputy Governor) then took the initiative to follow-up the meeting on December 14, 2001.

Aulia Pohan said further that BI officials worked professionally and did not have any interest in the merger decision to create Bank Century.

"The decision was taken on the consideration that if one of the three banks (Bank CIC) was closed, the two others would be affected. That`s why the three banks were merged," he said.

He also explained that only Danpac bank was in good condition, while Pikko Bank suffered from lack of capital and Bank CIC was not in a sound condition.

He did not dismiss the possibility of irregularities in the implementation of the standard operating procedures set by Bank Indonesia in the merger of Bank Pikko, Danpac
Bank, and Bank CIC into Century Bank and the acquisition process by Chinkara Capital.

"But I cannot tell for sure," Aulia Pohan said.(*)
 

Editor: Ruslan Burhani
COPYRIGHT © 2012

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