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September 08, 2009 Dion Bisara Sri Mulyani Shields President Yudhoyono From Bank Century Fallout Speaking for the first time in support of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the controversy surrounding the PT Bank Century bailout, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Monday said the head of state had no hand in the decision to rescue the bank and had trusted her to take "all necessary actions" to keep the economy stable. "I can firmly state that the president was not involved in the decision to bail out the bank," she said. "We based the decision on the regulation in lieu of law on the Financial System Safety Net [JPSK], the Central Bank Lawand the [Deposit Insurance Corporation] Law." Sri Mulyani, speaking after returning from the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in London, was the latest official to comment on the scandal, which some analysts believe could reach the highest levels of government. She said she was first informed of the bank's crisis over the phone by Vice President Boediono, who served as central bank governor at the time, while she was attending another G-20 meeting with Yudhoyono in Washington last year. "The president told me to go back to Indonesia and take all necessary actions to maintain economy stability," she said. The finance minister added that the bailout decision should not be evaluated by current conditions. "We can only see indications of whether it was systemic risk or not," she said. "At the time, we were worried about bank liquidity, credit default swaps and rumors among stakeholders." There was no political pressure or other intervention involved in the decision, she said. "Our only motivation was to save the economy," she said. "I didn't even know anything about the depositors of Bank Century." Sri Mulyani vowed not to restrain the ongoing investigation into the matter. "I will not hide anything," she said. "We made a decision and now the financial system is getting better. If we had not done that, the costs would have been higher than they turned out to be." Related articles Bank Century: Will Indonesia's Top Officials Survive the Fallout? 9:55 PM 06/09/2009 Lawmakers Demand Answers on Bank Century 9:45 PM 04/09/2009 Diet of Risky Junk Bonds Contributed to Bank Century's Downfall 9:21 PM 04/09/2009 House Wants Investigation of $669m Bank Century Bailout 9:39 PM 27/08/2009 Sri Mulyani Makes No Recovery Guarantees 9:15 PM 28/05/2009
