Bank Reboot

Tigor Siahaan has revitalized the performance of CIMB Niaga bank.

- Ulisari Eslita

 When Tigor Siahaan took over as president director of PT CIMB Niaga in June 2015, the bank was under pressure. Indonesia’s GDP growth rate had dropped below 5% that year, hit by the commodity downturn and other factors. The bank had seen net profit for the year drop 82% to Rp 428 billion. The stock had fallen from about Rp 1,200 in May 2013 to just Rp 500 in May 2015—a decline of 58%. Bank CIMB Niaga’s current account and saving account ratio (CASA), a vital funding source, had fallen to 47%, below the industry average of 50%.

Tigor, however, was a veteran banker who had spent two decades rising up through the ranks at Citibank, with his last position as Citi’s Indonesian country head for four years (the first Indonesian in that position). Tigor rolled up his sleeves and got to work. Tigor’s ability to affect a turnaround was critically important to CIMB Niaga’s parent firm, Malaysian financial firm CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (which holds 92.5% of CIMB Niaga). While Citi’s Indonesian unit was a big operation, it was only one of dozens of countries where Citi, one of the world’s largest banks, operated. By contrast, CIMB Niaga was CIMB’s largest operation of its five main markets—it is Indonesia’s fifth largest bank by assets. Whatever Tigor’s did—or did not—do would have a major impact on the parent firm’s results.