Central Bank admits banking system weaknesses

The Central Bank admitted Monday several weaknesses regarding the national banking system, especially regarding the bank’s internal monitoring.

Bank Indonesia deputy governor Halim Alamsyah said that the first weakness was related to internal processes within the bank. “This is related to the SOP [standard operating procedures] in the bank and the collusion of several employees within a bank,” he said, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

A case regarding billions of rupiah allegedly embezzled from customer accounts by Citibank employee Melinda Dee has been in the public spotlight over the last week.

The second weakness is related to customers who easily put too much trust in certain bank staff members.

“That is taken advantage of by bank employees, thus causing losses on the customer side,” Halim said, adding that the central bank should improve certain regulations, such as those facilitating monitoring processes.

“Perhaps there needs to be a maximum limit, such as how many employees could handle priority customers,” he said.

The central bank is also planning to improve regulations on debt collection to prevent customers from being harassed by collecting activities.

Irzen Octa, secretary-general of the National Unity Party (PPP), was found dead on Tuesday last week on the fifth floor of Citibank’s branch office in Jamsostek Towers, South Jakarta. Three debt collectors and a Citibank employee were named suspects in the case.