JAKARTA: Indonesia is considering reducing a maximum deposit guarantee at commercial banks, as countries worldwide revoke policies taken during the 2008 financial crisis, its deposit agency said on Wednesday. Currently only deposits up to 2 billion rupiah ($226,950) are guaranteed by the government in the event of commercial bank failures, but the country's central bank governor Darmin Nasution said "now is the right time" to review it as the financial crisis had passed.
Indonesia raised the maximum deposit guarantee from 100 million rupiah to 2 billion rupiah in October 2008 while other countries worldwide chose to guarantee all deposits, and has left the ceiling steady since then. While many savers would like to see this level maintained or lifted, Indonesia's state deposit agency (LPS) suggested reducing it in stages and said an optimal amount based on its study would be 572 million rupiah.
"Reducing it in stages will avoid any shock. Generally, emerging countries guarantee deposits up to four to six times of their GDP per capita," said LPS executive head Firdaus Djaelani. Indonesia's current deposit guarantee is 74 times its GDP per capita and covers 99.9 percent of bank deposits. Other countries have lowered their deposit guarantee limit.
For example, before the financial crisis Malaysia guaranteed 60,000 Malaysian ringgit ($19,772)and Singapore guaranteed S$20,000 ($15,705), but both countries moved to guarantee all deposits as worries over bank failures spread during the crisis. This year they have cut back that guarantee to 250,000 ringgit and S$50,000 respectively, said the LPS.
The LPS last month raised the maximum guaranteed rupiah bank deposit rate to 7.25 percent but held the maximum guaranteed dollar deposit rate at 2.75 percent. Deposits with higher interest rates are not guaranteed.
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