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BRI appoints new president director in another SOE management shakeup
State lender PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) shareholders have officially appointed Sunarso to lead the country’s most profitable bank as its new president director.
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A customer of state-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) exits a BRI ATM kiosk in Kediri, East Java, in this file picture. (Antara/ Prasetia Fauzani)
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tate lender PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) shareholders have officially appointed Sunarso to lead the country’s most profitable bank as its new president director, replacing Suprajarto who last week declined to be reshuffled to lead another state lender, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN).
“[The appointment of Sunarso] was based on a lot of considerations, including his innovation and complete understanding [of the industry],” State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry undersecretary for financial, survey and consultant services Gatot Trihargo told the press after BRI’s extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting in Jakarta on Monday.
Sunarso, who was formerly BRI vice president director, said he planned to make the bank the most valuable in Southeast Asia by 2022 under his leadership.
“We will also maintain our focus on the micro and small segments, while also trying to provide services to the segment even smaller than micro through financial technology [fintech],” he said during a press conference in Jakarta, adding that the services would range from lending to savings.
He also said the bank would not limit itself by developing its own fintech, but was open to collaborating with fintech firms to make the banks services widely available to everyone in the country.
The shareholders also agreed to appoint former Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) director of micro, small and medium director Catur Budi Harto to replace Sunarso as the new vice president director.
The BRI management shakeup came at a time when the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry is in the spotlight for recently reshuffling executive positions despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo having ordered ministers not to make any strategic decisions, including reshuffling the managements of state firms.
Suprajato's resignation, hours after he was appointed the president director of the much smaller BTN, sparked controversy. Suprajarto said he was never involved in any discussions regarding his new position. Observers have criticized the ministry’s approach to handling state firms' executives as they considered frequent management shakeups to be counter-productive to the firms' business performance.
