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Bank Mandiri seeks AGO’s support in asset recovery
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Bank Mandiri teller serves a customer at the state-owned lender's branch office in Senen, Central Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
W
ith growing concerns over rising bad debts, state-owned lender Bank Mandiri is seeking the support of law enforcers in its effort to deal with problematic debtors.
The publicly listed bank sealed on Thursday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) signed in Jakarta aimed to help optimize the former’s effort to optimize asset recovery.
Bank Mandiri corporate secretary Rohan Hafas said the lender would chase the problematic debtors “very aggressively”.
He said although exposing non-performing loans (NPL) to the public was taboo for banks, Bank Mandiri wanted to make a breakthrough.
(Read also: Bank Mandiri sees profit nosedive in 2016 amid rising NPL)
“Non-performing loans are a normal thing for banks but now we would like to show that we will deal with this very seriously,” he said on the sidelines of the MoU signing.
“We will not keep silent anymore by following the problematic debtors’ scenarios. We will conduct further audits and report to the AGO in case we find any criminal elements involved.”
Bank Mandiri saw its net profit plummet 32.1 percent year-on-year to Rp 13.8 trillion (US$1.03 billion) last year on the back of rising bad debts. Its NPL ratio soared to 4 percent in 2016 from 2.6 percent a year earlier, while its net NPL ratio increased to 1.53 percent from 0.9 percent.
Rohan said Bank Mandiri had recently caught a debtor who transferred money as bribe to one of the bank’s analysts. He said law enforcers had detained both people but he refused provide further details. (dra/hwa)
