He speaks of the need to rebuild staff morale and clear his name. Allegedly in exchange for the money, funds were released to Bank Bali with central bank approval. In fact, Bank Indonesia has joined the hated military, the bungling police and a government adrift in the gallery of faltering national entities. Sabirin's woes are not the central bank's only problem by a longshot. Little of the money is likely to ever be recovered.
Analysts blame political troubles and the yearend rush for dollars to pay foreign loans.
Bank Indonesia has been raising interest rates to prop up the currency, with success. Stability in central banks is something investors like to see. Bank Indonesia staffers insist business is normal despite the crisis. Many officials are in fact reluctant to make major decisions. Aditya Wardhana, a bank analyst at Trimegah Securities, explains that state pension funds and insurance companies complied with limits on deposits in any one bank by dividing the money among several.