... currently BNI leads other Indonesian banks in number of bank partners in Japan... "
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Publicly listed state lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) has established cooperation with Japan's Yamaguchi Financial Group (YMFG), a big holding company in the financial and banking sector.

The Yamaguchi Financial Group controls a number of banks including Yamaguchi Bank, which was established in 1878, Momiji Bank established in November 1923, and Kitakyushu Bank established in October 2010.

BNI, the country's fourth largest bank in asset, said in a news release on Sunday, the cooperation with Yamaguchi was made official with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by Gatot Gembiro Noegroho, head of Tokyo branch of BNI, and Koichi Fukuda, President of Yamaguchi Financial Group in Tokyo on Thursday.

YMFG operates in leasing, as a credit card issuer and as a securities company , and has a consultancy subsidiary, YM Consulting Corp and a research institute, Kitakyushu Economics Institute.

The company group based in Yamaguchi Prefecture commands a total assets of US$111 billion with net income averaging US$218 million a year, based on data in 2012.

Corporate Secretary of BNI Tribuana Tunggadewi said currently BNI leads other Indonesian banks in number of bank partners in Japan.

BNI is aggressive in expanding cooperation with Japanese regional banks (JRB) to take advantage of strong flows of investment from Japan to Indonesia lately, Tribuana said.

BNI already established partnership with 48 Japanese banks including 47 regional banks and a Shinkin Bank or cooperative bank. Each of the bank has customers ready to invest in Indonesia, Tribuana said.

In 2012, BNI established a Japan Desk to facilitate customers from the regional banks interested in investing in Indonesia, he said.

Through the service of the Japan Desk, BNI could take the initiative to provide various facilities to help the customers of the JRB to move their operation bases to Indonesia, either by offering rupiah credit , information about Indonesian economic condition , investment climate in Indonesia, and help in securing business license in the country, he said.

BNI will see that the JRB customers in Indonesia would not turn to big Japanese banks operating in Indonesia, he said.

There are at least 150 customers of JRB in Indonesia, investing at least US$75 million in the country.

Meanwhile, the opening of a new branch office in Osaka on February 20, 2013, supporting the Tokyo full branch , will strengthen relations with the JRB in the western region of Japan.


(AS/A014/ASG)

Editor: Ade P Marboen
Copyright © ANTARA 2013