Lippo billionaire Riady invokes Taoism in digital banking foray

SINGAPORE (Oct 7): Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady is seeking to rebuild his banking empire almost 20 years after the Asian financial crisis prompted him to back away and focus on real estate.

This time, it’s not going to be a brick-and-mortar operation, but a digital one driven by his grandson John, the 87-year-old chairman of Lippo Group said in an Oct 4 interview in Singapore. Riady said his conglomerate’s Indonesian banking asset, PT Bank Nationalnobu, could be used as a vehicle for digital services such as electronic payments, initially in that country before potentially expanding into Singapore.

“Tomorrow’s banking is e-banking,” said Riady, who has seen at least five runs on his banks during a career spanning more than five decades. “The target has to be very high, very big, but we will start small. This is according to Laozi,” he said, referring to the Chinese philosopher who is regarded as Taoism’s pre-eminent scholar.

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