Century team to play nine hours of meeting recordings

The House of Representatives’ inquiry team on the Bank Century case will play Thursday a nine-hour-long recording of meetings conducted by Bank Indonesia and the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) that led to the bailout of the ailing bank in November 2008.

"The recordings are of the Bank Indonesia governors board meeting on Nov. 13, 2008 and Nov. 20, 2008, and ones of the KSSK meeting on Nov. 20, 2008 and Nov. 21, 2008," one of the committee deputy chairmen, Yahya Secawiria from the Democratic Party, said at the House in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Thursday.

Another deputy chairman, Gayus Lumbuun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that in total, the recordings were about nine hours long.

The bank was salvaged using an authorization from the then KSSK chairperson, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and the then Bank Indonesia governor, Boediono, after the central bank determined Bank Century was a systematically threatening bank should it be left to fail in the midst of the global crisis.

The bailout, however, increased to a staggering Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million), more than ten times higher than its original estimate.