Agus Dermawan Wintarto Martowardojo (born 24 January 1956) is an Indonesian economist and banker who served as Governor of Bank Indonesia, Indonesia's central bank, from 2013 to 2018. Previously, he served as

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

from 2010 to 2013 after succeeding former minister

Sri Mulyani Indrawati Sri Mulyani Indrawati (born 26 August 1962) is an Indonesian economist who has served as Minister of Finance (Indonesia), Minister of Finance of Indonesia since 2016 under President of Indonesia, President Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. She ha ...

, who resigned from the office and took position as Managing Director of the

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...

Early career

Agus was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. After graduating from

University of Indonesia The University of Indonesia (UI; ) is a public university in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest tertiary-level educational institutions in Indonesia (known as the Dutch East Indies when UI was established) ...

's Faculty of Economics in 1984, he became an international loan officer at the Indonesian branch of

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

. Agus has a long career as one of top

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

s in Indonesia. He was the Chief Executive Officer of

Bank Mandiri PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk or Bank Mandiri, headquartered in Jakarta, is the largest bank in Indonesia in terms of assets, loans and deposits. Total assets as of 2022, were 1.992 Trillion rupiah (around US$133 Billion). As of 2022, Bank Man ...

, the largest bank in Indonesia, between 2005 and 2010. He was the President Director of Bank Bumiputera (1995–1998) and President Director of Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia (1998–1999). His performance as head of Bank Mandiri was considered successful, as he slashed

non-performing loan A non-performing loan (NPL) is a bank loan that is subject to late repayment or is unlikely to be repaid by the borrower in full. Non-performing loans represent a major challenge for the banking sector, as they reduce profitability. They are ofte ...

s and raised the bank's profile among international investors. He also increased profits in the banks. In 2008 for example, the bank paid $418m in dividends to the shareholders. He was also instrumental in helping the Finance Ministry in recovering Rp 1.23 trillion (US$133.15 million) of state money from Tommy Soeharto, son of late former president

Soeharto Suharto (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician, and dictator, who was the second and longest serving president of Indonesia, serving from 1967 to 1998. His 32 years rule, cha ...

Minister of Finance

Following the resignation of

Sri Mulyani Sri Mulyani Indrawati (born 26 August 1962) is an Indonesian economist who has served as Minister of Finance of Indonesia since 2016 under President Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. She has previously served in the role under Susilo Bambang Yu ...

, Agus was appointed as Finance Minister in the

Second United Indonesia Cabinet The Second United Indonesia Cabinet () was sworn in on 22 October 2009, two days after the inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the second term. The cabinet consisted of members from Yudhoyono's Democratic Party (Indonesia), Dem ...

. His selection was greeted positively by analysts as he was considered to have managerial skills required for the position. He also has wide international experience and has represented Indonesia in

G20 The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stabil ...

forums. In March 2011 he announced his first fiscal policy as Finance Minister with a focus on promoting real sector growth and investment intended to spur Indonesia’s economic growth. Highlights of the new regulations included removing the

value added tax A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

(VAT) for the sale of houses worth less than Rp 70 million (US$7,910) compared with the previous Rp 55 million; eliminating taxes on the sales of cooking oil and bulk cooking oil for the poor; and providing in advance 50 percent of the funds needed by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for the rice for the poor program.

Governor of Bank Indonesia

In 2008, following resignation of

Boediono Boediono (Perfected Spelling System, EYD: Budiono, pronounced ; born 25 February 1943) is an Indonesian politician and economist who served as the 11th Vice President of Indonesia, vice president of Indonesia from 2009 to 2014. He became vice pr ...

as Governor of

Bank Indonesia Bank Indonesia (BI) is the central bank of the Republic of Indonesia. It replaced in 1953 the Bank of Java (, DJB), which had been created in 1828 to serve the financial needs of the Dutch East Indies. History Bank of Java King William ...

to run as Vice President of Indonesia as the running mate of

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to as SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired Indonesian Army, army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014 and the second president of Ind ...

, Agus was nominated as one of candidates for Governor. However his nomination was rejected by the national

Legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

, apparently for political reasons. On 22 February 2013, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono surprisingly named Agus as his sole candidate for the governorship, replacing

Darmin Nasution Darmin Nasution (born 21 December 1948) is an Indonesian economist and politician who served as Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs from 2015 to 2019. He was previously Governor of Bank Indonesia, serving the role from 2010 to 2013 durin ...

. On 27 March 2013, the Indonesian House of Representatives' Finance Commission confirmed Agus as governor of Bank Indonesia for the period of 2013–2018. Agus won 46 votes of support and seven votes against. One member abstained from the vote.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martowardojo, Agus 1956 births Living people Ministers of finance of Indonesia Governors of Bank Indonesia Indonesian bankers Indonesian economists Businesspeople from Amsterdam