DARK clouds are passing over shareholders of PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI). The best perfuming bank shares crashed sharply two weeks ago. In January, the share price of BRI was still Rp7,350, while at the end of June it dropped to as low as Rp4,725 or down by almost 36 percent. Only last week did it start rising to around Rp5,400.

BRI was not alone. High-ranked banks went through the same fate. The shares of BCA sank by 36 percent, BNI slumped by