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ewly established consultancy firm PT RHT Solusi Indonesia is ready to give its clients compliance and risk management advisory as the financial industry in the country grows more progressively.

The new firm, established by Indonesian law firm Hanafiah Ponggawa and Partners (HPRP) and Singapore'€™s RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP, claims to be the first company in Indonesia to offer theoretical and technological solutions on
compliance.

HPRP'€™s Andre Rahadian said both partners wanted to establish a company that could provide continuous support on compliance as well as bridge an understanding between industry players and
regulators.

He said Indonesia'€™s main problem was a limited amount of managers and staff that had adequate knowledge and experiences in the field of compliance. He mentioned a finance firm that had one person managing its entire compliance division.

'€œManagers and officers of Indonesian banks and financial institutions often travel overseas just to learn about compliance. That fact shows there is growing demand in the market for better understanding of compliance issues,'€ he said on Wednesday.

He said that the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which will open next year, had made Indonesian financial industry players and regulators aware of the importance of compliance and good corporate governance (GCG). In fact, the practices are still inadequate compared to international standards.

Moreover, he said, publicly listed companies should make sure that they implemented the international standards of compliance and GCG. He cited an Indonesian mining company that recently failed in its rights issue due to problems in compliance.

On the other hand, Andre said RHT Solusi also aimed to push financial industry players and regulators, for instance the Financial Services Authority (OJK), to promote an information-sharing community that would serve as an information catalyst between both sides to understand each other'€™s needs.

Similar information-sharing communities, he said, had already been established in Singapore and Malaysia, which are home to the most progressive financial markets in the ASEAN region.

To attract potential clients, Andre said RHT Solusi would offer a wide range of solutions that could be cross-sectors, especially in the field of technology. The very basic offers, he said, included product reviews, risk analysis as well as offline and online training.

On a wider scale, Andre said RHT Solusi offered compliance and risk analysis on database warehousing technology, which involves large international banks and telecommunication firms.

He said that PT Sigma Cipta Caraka, or Telkomsigma, a subsidiary of state-run telecommunication provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), was one of his company'€™s telecommunication clients offering database warehousing technology to banks.

For each consultancy, RHT Solusi received an average commission of 1 to 2 percent from the total value of a client'€™s project contract, Andre said. Furthermore, Andre said that almost half of around 10 to 15 prospective banking and financial institution clients targeted this year had shown interest in the services.

'€œWe want to focus on banks and financial institutions, such as insurance and securities firms, this year and the next. Afterward, we may aim for listed companies outside the financial sector, such as oil and gas firms,'€ he said.

Andre said RHT Solusi could assure its quality of advisory as most of its officers had had experience and knowledge as compliance managers, technological experts as well as regulators in Indonesia and its neighboring countries. (gda)