Indonesia’s state-owned deposit guarantee agency took over Bank Century, marking the first such collapse in Indonesia since the Asian financial crisis of a decade ago.

Boediono, the Bank Indonesia governor, said the decision to take over the publicly-listed Bank Century, which has assets of about $1.2bn and is the 13th largest by market value, was to “make it better and more professional” until a buyer could be found. “There are interested investors but the government and Bank Indonesia saw that people needed immediate certainty so [we decided] the best way out was to take it over”.