House to summon Citibank

The House of Representatives’ finance commission is set to summon Citibank management to attend a hearing on April 5 to question the latter on two cases where the bank’s employees have been implicated.

A relationship manager at one of the bank’s branch offices, Inong Melinda aka Malinda Dee, was arrested last month for alleged embezzlement of customers’ money, amassing a wealth of Rp 17 billion (US$ 2 million).

The bank has also been in the spotlight after a customer was found dead in its branch office in Menara Jamsostek, South Jakarta, last week. Three debt collectors and one bank employee have been named suspects in the case.

Legislators on Monday said they would question the bank on its customer protection policy in a planned hearing with representatives from the bank, the central bank and the National Police chief.

“Customer protection is about more than [ensuring] privacy, but ensuring their comfort,” the House’s finance commission deputy head Harry Azhar Azis said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Harry said the hearing would look into more potential banking violations perpetrated by Citibank.

“If there have been more, I will be among those supporting to revoke its permit as a lesson for other banks,” he added.

Legislators are also to review the law on Bank Indonesia, especially on articles stipulating customer protection and its implementation.

Harry said if banks did not ensure customer protection, there might have been negligence on Bank Indonesia’s part in supervising them.

Citibank spokeswoman Ditta Amahorseya said the bank was ready to attend the planned hearing.

“We’ll be there,” she said. She, however, refused to name Citibank officials to attend the hearing.