The bank`s spokesman, Difi A Johansyah, said here on Tuesday the decline in foreign banks ownership of SBIs occurred because many pf them had not extended their ownership of SBIs due in December.
"They seem to be waiting for the right time to enter again," he said.
Difi said the drop in foreign banks` ownership of SBIs was in line with BI`s policy of reducing the the portion of SBIs as a monetary instrument and replacing it by State Securities (SBN).
"SBI is not an investment means because it is issued to absorb excess banking liquidity. So, the more investors quit SBI, the better," he said.
Besides providing term deposits to replace SBIs, BI was also buys state securities now already reaching Rp65.78 trillion.
"Of the total Rp55 trillion has been used as reverse repo in the market operations," he said.
Difi said foreign ownership of SBN only increased a bit from Rp222.86 trillion at the end of December 2011 to Rp222.97 trillion on January 13.
Foreign ownership in the share market meanwhile rose by Rp1.9 trillion from Rp24.29 trillion to Rp26.22 trillion. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
