Bank Mandiri Persero Tbk PT : Strides Ahead with Assets of Rp 855 trillion

Jakarta, February 3, 2015 - Bank Mandiri has consolidated its position as the largest bank in Indonesia, with its assets standing at Rp 855 trillion (unaudited) at the end of 2014. According to Bank Mandiri Corporate Secretary, Rohan Hafas, the target now is to grow the Bank's assets to Rp 1,000 trillion by the end of this year.

Rohan said the Bank's 2014 achievement made it the largest bank in Indonesia and equipped it to step onto the regional stage as as a Qualified ASEAN Bank (QAB).

"We will continue to strengthen our foundations so as to be a domestic Indonesian bank that is capable of competing with other larger banks in ASEAN. We also want Bank Mandiri to have hundreds of branches in the ASEAN market so as to offset the some 8 thousand branches that foreign banks currently have in Indonesia, while we only have one branch in ASEAN. Our plan for an additional branch has not yet been approved, even after 5 years of consideration by local regulators," said Rohan.

Given this, Rohan said, the opportunity to become a QAB must be seized, especially given that the government is willing to increase the Bank's capital to an even Rp 100 trillion. In addition, many are pushing for Bank Mandiri to become a QAB so as to enable it to compete with other ASEAN banks.

Despite being the largest bank in Indonesia with assets of Rp 855 trillion, Bank Mandiri is only ranked ninth largest bank in ASEAN.

In the MEA, if a bank is categorized as a QAB, it will have full access to open up branches in every ASEAN countries without the need to obtain the approval of the local authorities.

Currently, continued Rohan, with a large asset base and more than Rp 90 trillion in capital, Bank Mandiri will not find it so difficult to increase its capital to the level required to become a QAB.

In addition to competing in the ASEAN region, he said, Indonesia needs to have a large bank with a strong capital base, considering that Indonesia accounts for 41% of the area of ASEAN. In terms of population, 39% of the entire population of ASEAN is Indonesian, while this country accounts for the biggest portion of GDP among the ASEAN countries (39% of the ASEAN's total GDP).

"This potential will not optimally benefit the prosperity of the country if the intermediation function of our domestic banks is not able to match that of the banks of other ASEAN countries that have larger capital bases," said Rohan.