Japanese finance company J. Trust Co is set to buy Indonesia’s Bank Mutiara to tap rising demand for retail finance in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Bank Mutiara, previously known as Bank Century, was bailed out by the Indonesian government during the global financial crisis in 2008 and has been run by the Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation, or Lembaga Penjamin Simpanan. Bank Mutiara has been restructuring its business under LPS’ supervision and the state agency started a public bidding process to sell its 99.996 percent interest in the lender in April 2014. The sale is exempt from the 40% cap on foreign ownership of commercial banks in Indonesia. It also comes at a time when Indonesian lawmakers are drafting bills to restrict foreign ownership in the banking, insurance and plantation sectors amid rising nationalist sentiment. J Trust said it wanted to help meet rising demand for retail finance in the country of about 250 million people, as personal incomes increase in line with Indonesia’s strong economic growth that has outpaced most of the region in recent years.
