Morris, former chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce and a director of the European Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, replaced Rabobank Indonesia chief executive officer Tony Costa who stepped down from the role.

Prior to joining SCB Indonesia as CEO in 2005, Morris -- a British national -- was CEO for SCB Philippines and before that with SCB Brunei Darussalam.  

Before working in Southeast Asia, Morris was regional head of consumer banking for Africa, covereding  14 sub-Saharan countries.  

His career with SCB Group now spans 23 years. He obtained his Masters in Business Administration from Henley Management College in the United Kingdom.

“The FBAI continues to represent the collective view of 32 foreign banks that are represented here in Indonesia and naturally this becomes increasingly important as we face such challenging times,” said Simon in a statement recently.

Aside from having difficult times in their base countries, foreign banks have been bogged down by numerous problems in Indonesia, including soaring credit card

debts and huge losses on foreign currency derivatives and hedging products.

Some of the banks are also facing potential losses from loan exposure to the now-defunct Netherlands-based Indonesische Overseeze Bank N.V. (Indover Bank), a unit of Indonesia’s central bank, which was declared bankrupt in December.

As of November, SCB is the largest foreign bank operating in Indonesia by assets, according to Bank Indonesia.

Having supplied  Indonesia’s big corporations with massive loans, analysts believe the role of

foreign banks is diminishing due to the effects of the global economic slump.

Almost all the world’s financial giants have operations in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, to tap the relatively underdeveloped local financial market, dominated largely by state banks and state financial institutions

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