Citibank Indonesia

Citibank Tower, Jakarta

History

Citibank has had a presence in Indonesia in one form or another since 1918 when its precursor, The International Banking Corporation, set up branches in Batavia (present-day Jakarta) and Surabaya. The International Banking Corporation withdrew from Indonesia in the late 1920s, but Citibank reopened in Jakarta in 1968.

Company Profile

Citibank Indonesia offers retail banking in 20 branch offices and 102 ATMs in the cities of Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Semarang and Denpasar. Citibank also began mobile banking in 2003.^[1]

Time Line

2004 - Citibank launches Citifinancial.
2005-2007 – Citibank receives the Indonesia Best Brand Award from SWA Magazine.
2006 – Citibank ranked Best Bank On Service Quality by a banking sector customer service poll conducted by Infobank magazine in collaboration with the Institute of Service Management Studies (Trisakti University, Jakarta).
2007 – Receives the Employer of Choice Award from Warta Ekonomi.
2007 – Receives the Indonesia Bank Loyalty Award in the Savings Account and Credit Card Category from InfoBank.
2007 - Receives the Best Internet Bank Award from Global Finance.
2007- Receives the eCompany Award from Warta Ekonomi.
2007 - Receives the Best Financial Performance Award from Infobank.
2007 - Receives the Best Foreign Bank from Finance Asia.
2007 - Receives the Indonesia Most Admired Company 2006 Award (for 2 consecutive years) from Business Week and FrontierMarketing Research.
2007 - Receives the Best Wealth Management and Retail Bank & Service Satisfaction Index from Marketing Magazine & CCSL.
2007 - Receives the Best Corporate PR Program award from Mix Magazine.
2007-2008 – Receives the Banking Service Excellence Award from InfoBank.

Products and services

Citibank Indonesia began issuing credit cards in 1989. It currently offers nine types of credit cards. Its payment network in Indonesia consists of more than 11,000 payment points, 13 banks and one post office from which customers can pay their credit card bills. An online payment facility is also available.

The main business of Citibank Indonesia is in the area of wealth management, where it provides financial advisory services to customers. Citibank has a 24–hour CitiPhone banking helpline for customers. Citibank Indonesia also offers bank loans, deposit accounts and insurance to its customers.

Divisions

Citifinancial has 56 branches in the six major cities of Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Medan, and Denpasar. Since 2007, Citifinancial has been collaborating with PT Pos Indonesia to expand Citifinancial's position in the Indonesian market by leveraging the wide post office distribution.

Key people

Tigor Siahaan - Chief Country Officer
Riko Tasmaya - Citi Transaction Services Head
Lauren Sulistiawati - Managing Director Consumer Business
Kahar Anwar - Citi Commercial Head
Agung Laksamana - Director, Country Corporate Affairs Head
Djunaedy Kurniawan - Director, CitiBusiness Head

Sponsorship and corporate responsibility

As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), Citibank Indonesia runs a program called “Use Credit Wisely” to educate its customers and the public.

Citibank has launched several CSR activities under the umbrella of Citibank Peka (Peka is an acronym of peduli (care) and berkarya (to do good). Initiated in February 1999, Citibank Peka (CP) focuses on education, communication development and natural disaster relief.^[2]

Scandals

(Inong) Malinda Dee, who held the position of senior relationship manager in Citibank Indonesia's Landmark Building branch, was arrested after being accused of embezzling at least USD 2 million from her customers' accounts.^[3] On April 6, 2011 the Central Bank (Bank Indonesia) has banned Citibank from taking in new customers for its Citigold business until police investigation into the case is completed.^[4]

In an unrelated incident that happened to occur close in time to the previous one, Citibank has also gotten tangled up in the circumstances of the death of Irzen Octa, who served as secretary general of a small local political party. Octa, who had racked up a sizable debt to Citibank, was found dead on the bank's premises after being interrogated by third party debt collectors hired by Citibank to deal with long overdue debts. There are conflicting reports on the circumstances of his death, as multiple autopsy reports have shown different results. Despite this uncertainty, on April 7, 2011, the Indonesian Central Bank (Bank Indonesia) decreed that Citibank must stop processing new credit card applications until the investigation into the death of Irzen Octa has been completed.^[5] Due to torture and false imprisonment in relation to Mr. Irzen's death, 5 people, including 2 Citigroup employees have been charged.^[6]

Citibank Indonesia's senior management has subsequently been summoned by the local congress (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) for hearings in relation to the incidents.

After a month of investigation, Indonesian Central Bank (Bank Indonesia) clamps firm sanction on Citibank Indonesia. Since May 6, 2011 Citibank Indonesia:

• was banned from receiving new customers for its prime Citigold service for one year
• was banned from issuing new credit cards for its customers for two years
• was banned from using debt collectors from the third party for two years^[7]

Since May 9, 2011 Central bank conducted a repeated fit-and-proper test on about 20 Citibank's executives and management for a maximum 40 days. Central Bank also insisted Citibank to fire the officials involved directly in the Citigold and credit card cases.^[8]

References

External links

• Citibank Indonesia
• Citigold Citibank Indonesia