BI Data About Bank Century Disappointing: Former Minister

Jakarta (Antara) - Former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said she was disappointed with the quality of data given by the Central Bank about Bank Century after the scandal hit lender was categorized as a failed bank with systemic impact in 2008. "The fact was at that time I was very disappointed with the quality of the BI (Bank Indonesia) data, but as a finance minister I knew what was at stake. I then asked BI to assume professional responsibility for the figure given to the Financial System Stability Committee (KKSK)," Sri told the Jakarta Corruption Court here on Friday. At that time Vice President Boediono was the governor of the Central Bank. Sri Mulyani was testifying at the court trying former deputy governor of the central bank Budi Mulya as a suspect . Sri Mulyani was the finance minister from 2005 to 2009 and chairman of KKSK that declared Bank Century as a failed lender which could triggered bank rush that it had to be taken over by the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS), which is accountable to the president. Sri Mulyani said she was especially disappointed with changing figures for Bank Century's capital adequacy ratio from minus 3.53 percent on Nov. 21 in 2008 to minus 35.92 percent in three days after it was under LPS. "I expressed a lot of disappointment with the poor governance of Bank Century and why it (the change in figures) emerged after being taken over by LPS," she told the court. She said her concern was mainly over the financial strength of LPS in facing the financial crisis. LPS had only Rp14 trillion available to cover up to Rp1,000 trillion of Rp1,700 trillion of the public deposits in banks at that time. "As a decision maker, I was very concerned as LPS had only Rp14 trillion. In case of run on bank LPS had no ammunition to deal with the problem. I had to prevent a repeat of the 1997-1998 crisis," she said. When Bank Century was declared a failed bank with systemic impact, BI needed only an additional fund of Rp632 billion, she added. With the additional amount needed was only Rp632 billion and LPS had Rp14 trillion in hand it would be safe , but information from Taxation Director General Pak Darmin said the amount of fund needed for Bank Century swelled, she said. "To compound the problem was Bank Indonesia said there were 5 more banks having similar condition as Bank Century and 18 other banks were facing liquidity problem," she said. (*)