AS MALAYSIAN PLAYERS ‘FORCED’ TO MULL MERGERS, INDONESIA’S BANK MANDIRI GETS THE OK TO OPEN FIRST BRANCH HERE

JAKARTA: Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s leading commercial bank, will be opening its first branch in Malaysia within the next few months.

According to a report in Indonesian newspaper, Koran Tempo, the Malaysian government, via Bank Negara Malaysia, had given the green light to Bank Mandiri’s “Qualified Asean Bank” (QAB) status application recently.

The newspaper quoted Bank Mandiri’s chief executive officer, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, as saying that the bank is currently finalising its proposals and that it was expecting to receive its operating licence by August this year.

He said Bank Mandiri had allocated RM300mil to fund the opening of its branch in Malaysia, adding that the bank would be injecting its capital in three stages, with an initial commitment of around RM100mil or between US$50mil and US$60mil.

Bank Mandiri was established by the Indonesian Ministry of Finance in 1998, in which the Indonesian government retained a 60% stake, while the balance are owned by local and foreign shareholders. It is Indonesia’s largest bank in terms of asset ownership and funds, and has 2,505 branches in the republic.

– Bernama