The Contested State

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency: A Controversial Chapter in Economic Policy

In 1998, amidst the cataclysmic Asian Financial Crisis, the hastily established Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) was tasked to implement what became the largest banking sector intervention in history. A misunderstood and often forgotten agency, during its brief existence the IBRA became responsible for assets estimated to be worth more than half of Indonesia’s GDP.

Twenty years af…