New boss: The newly appointed president director of state-owned lender Bank Mandiri, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo (right), sits alongside his predecessor Budi Gunadi Sadikin at a press conference on Monday in Jakarta. The bank'€™s annual general shareholders meeting on Monday approved the appointment of Kartika, the bank'€™s former finance and strategy director, to lead the largest bank in the country in terms of assets. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

The new chief of state-owned lender Bank Mandiri, the nation'€™s largest bank by assets, expects that his leadership will lead the bank to intensify its presence in the regional market while providing a larger contribution to the domestic economy.

Mandiri'€™s annual general shareholders meeting on Monday appointed Kartika '€œTiko'€ Wirjoatmodjo as the bank'€™s new president director, replacing Budi Gunadi Sadikin who had led the bank for the past three years.

Prior to his appointment, Tiko was Mandiri'€™s finance and strategy director. He used to lead the Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) and Indonesia Infrastructure Finance (IIF), a partly state-owned non-banking financial body, before joining Mandiri'€™s board of directors in 2015.

As the bank'€™s new leader, Tiko said he was envisioning the mid-to-long term plan for making Mandiri the first Indonesian lender able to play a major role in the Southeast Asian region.

'€œThe country'€™s banking industry will continue to face a challenging situation for the next one to two years. However, if the situation improves and we have an adequate valuation in the next three to five years, perhaps it is time for us to be a major regional player,'€ he said at a press conference after the meeting.

Tiko, who will lead Mandiri for the 2016-2021 period, said the bank was currently in discussions with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) regarding its efforts to open full-fledged branches in Malaysia and upgrade its office in Singapore ahead of the ASEAN Economic Community'€˜s (AEC) banking and financial services liberalization in 2020.

He pointed out that future branches would represent Mandiri'€™s '€œsubstantial presence'€ in the region, while admitting that the bank and the OJK would still have to carry out long negotiations with the banking authorities of those two countries.

Mandiri is currently the only Indonesian bank operating in Malaysia, however it has limited access and is still unable to operate as a full branch as it cannot meet the capital requirements of 300 million ringgit imposed by the Malaysian central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), for a licensed bank '€” including locally incorporated foreign banks.

With the call for financial integration in ASEAN, the minimum capital requirement in Malaysia may be lower than 300 million ringgit if Bank Mandiri acquires the status of a Qualified ASEAN Bank (QAB), which will be applicable only to '€œindigenous'€ ASEAN banks that are based in ASEAN countries under the ownership of ASEAN citizens.

Tiko said the bank'€™s target to become a major regional player was included in its long term corporate planning for the 2015-2020 period, while stressing that he would also continue the legacy left by Budi Gunadi Sadikin and stay with existing business plans.

'€œOver the past 17 years, we have become a universal bank and developed our core competency in various segments, from micro to corporate,'€ he said.

Mandiri is targeting to increase its loan disbursement by between 12 and 14 percent this year, higher than the 12.4 percent year-on-year (yoy) increase to Rp 595.4 trillion (US$45.1 billion) booked last year.

State-Owned Enterprise Ministry deputy for business services Gatot Trihargo Tiko'€™s appointment was confirmed after the ministry conducted a thorough selection process to asses potential candidates from the bank'€™s internal management.

Monday'€™s meeting also saw the bank approve the allocation of 30 percent of its net profit last year, which stood at Rp 20.3 trillion, to pay dividends, while the remaining Rp 11.9 trillion would be used as retained profits to increase its capital and Rp 2.25 trillion would be kept as special reserve.

Mandiri'€™s new board of directors

President director : Kartika Wirjoatmodjo

Vice president director : Sulaiman A. Arianto

Directors : Ogi Prastomiyono, Pahala N. Mansury, Royke Tumilaar, Hery Gunardi, Tardi, Ahmad Siddik Badruddin, Kartini Sally, Rico Usthavia Frans

Kartika Wirjoatmodjo
(42 years old)

Educational background

1996 Bachelor'€™s degree in economics and accounting, University of Indonesia

2001 Master'€™s degree in business administration, Erasmus University (Rotterdam)

Professional experience

1995 RSM AAJ '€” tax and accounting consultant

1996 Industrial Bank of Japan '€” credit analyst

1998 PricewaterhouseCoopers '€” senior consultant at PwC Financial Advisory Services

2000 Boston Consulting Group

2003 Bank Mandiri '€” department head of strategy and financial analysis for Strategy and Performance Group and later group head

2008 Mandiri Sekuritas '€” managing director

2011 Indonesia Infrastructure Finance '€” CEO

2014 Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) '€” executive director

2015 Bank Mandiri '€” chief financial officer

Source: Bank Mandiri

------------------

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com

Popular

Bogor declares health emergency after mass food poisoning linked to free meal program

Universe dying quicker than thought, new research says

BYD car catches fire after three days parked at home in West Jakarta