Indonesia lifts wealthy client ban on banks

Indonesia's central bank said on Wednesday that it would lift the ban on 23 commercial lenders from accepting wealthy customers, after a major embezzlement case at Citibank. The ban, which has been effective since May 2, was triggered after an employee of Citibank Indonesia allegedly embezzled at least 17 billion rupiah ($1.98 million) from clients' private accounts.
"Starting on June 2, those banks can start acquiring wealthy customers again," Bank Indonesia spokesman Difi Johansyah told AFP. "During the ban, we wanted an improvement in SOP (standard operating procedures) from them so the customers can have better protection," he said.
Wealthy customers are those who have more than 500 million rupiah ($60,000) to deposit. The 23 banks did not include Citibank, which had already been banned and is still under sanction.