Bank Indonesia

Bank of Java

King William I of the Netherlands granted the right to create a private bank in the Indies in 1826, which was named De Javasche Bank. It was founded on 24 January 1828 and later became the bank of issue of the Dutch East Indies. The bank regulated and issued the Netherlands Indies gulden.

In 1881, an office of the Bank of Java was opened in Amsterdam. Later followed the opening of an office in New York. By 1930 the bank owned sixteen office branches in the Dutch East Indies: Bandung, Cirebon, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Surabaya, Malang, Kediri, Banda Aceh, Medan, Padang, Palembang, Banjarmasin, Pontianak, Makassar, and Manado. Almost all buildings were designed by the Amsterdam architect Eduard Cuypers (1859–1927) in collaboration with M. J. Hulswit (1862–1921) and A. A. Fermont (1882–1967) in Batavia.

The Bank of Java was operated as a private bank and individuals as well as industries etc. could get help in the bank's offices.

Bank Indonesia

Bank Indonesia was founded on 1 July 1953 from the nationalisation of De Javasche Bank, three years after the recognition of Indonesia's independence by Netherlands.

For the next 15 years, Bank Indonesia carried on commercial activities as well as acted as the nation's national bank and was in charge of issuing Indonesian rupiah currency. This came to an end with the Act No. 13 of 1968 on the Central Bank, transforming Bank Indonesia as a central bank.

The act was subsequently replaced by Act No. 23 of 1999, giving the bank independence from governmental control. Thereafter, the bank reported to the parliament (DPR) instead of the President, and the bank's governor was no longer a member of the cabinet.