Hong Kong – The Review has obtained a confidential report prepared for the central bank by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. that shows Bank Indonesia bent its own rules to save seven institutions earlier this year. The most prominent is Bank Nusa Nasional, owned by the family of influential businessman Aburizal Bakrie, a member of Habibie's board of economic advisers. Strict rules, announced in February by the central bank, ordered that any bank failing to meet a minimum capital-adequacy ratio of minus 25% was to be closed. A recent audit by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and cited in the McKinsey report concluded that Bank Nusa had a capital-adequacy ratio of minus 210%, the Review reports. But Bank Indonesia rejected the auditor's interpretation of the balance sheet in favour of the bank management's view – and revised the figure to a minus 24.6%, making it eligible for government money.

The McKinsey report went on to say that 99% of the bank's loans were doubtful and that 29% of all loans went to companies linked to the Bakrie family – beyond the legal lending limit designed to protect banks from over-exposure to any one borrower. The report quoted Bank Nusa officials as either denying the violation had occurred or claiming it had permission from the central bank to break the law.