NEW BI SENIOR DEPUTY GOVERNOR EXPECTED TO BRING IMPROVEMENT

Jakarta, May 14 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Banking community expressed great hope that Darmin Nasution, the successful candidate for the post of Bank Indonensia (BI) senior deputy governor can help expedite a solution to the financial crisis.

Federation of Private Domestic Banks (Perbanas) chairman, Sigit Pramono made the statement here Thursday, after the House of Representatives (DPR)'s commission XI picked Darmin Nasution, former Taxation affairs director general, tobecome senior deputy to the Central Bank's governor to succeed Miranda Goeltom who has retired.

Nasution passed the fit and proper test conducted by the House's commission XI on Monday (May 11), defeating Gunarni Suwarno, Bank Mandiri's commissioner who was also former chairman of Perbanas.

"We hope Darmin Nasution can bring improvement to banking industry wholly," Pramono said, adding that Nasution has experience in handling the bank recapitalization during the 1998 financial crisis.

Nasution was also former commissioner of Bank Mandiri, the largest state-owned bank in term of assest. ***2***