World’s most expensive bank cuts back on water to trim costs

JAKARTA: Weeks after Armand Wahyudi Hartono became the vice-president director of Indonesia’s largest non-state bank, he noticed how staff were leaving half-empty glasses of water after work. The next morning, he restricted the amount of drinking water available at PT Bank Central Asia’s headquarters.

Such stringent cost control is just an example of how the lender has managed to pare expenses and boost efficiency, wooing investors along the way. They’ve rewarded the company since it went public in 2000, pushing its stock up every year but one – 2008, when the global financial crisis hit. Now BCA is the most expensive among the world’s lenders with a valuation exceeding US$50bil. And yet, investors are still willing to buy it.