Bank Central Asia is the sole Indonesian listing in Forbes’ Fabulous 50 Asian Companies list.

Forbes’ ranking of the 50 “most fabulous” Asian companies employed the criteria of revenues or market capitalization of at least $5 billion plus long-term profitability, good sales and earnings growth, and healthy projected earnings and stock-price gains.

A BCA Branch.

Bank Central Asia, or BCA, the bank of choice for your typical Chinese Indonesian merchant, and his wife, was adjudged to have a market value of $6.0 billion with sales of $1.6 billion. Forbes notes the irony of a company that was on its knees in 1998, and then nationalised, making it into the list by 2006:

One of the region’s more remarkable recovery stories. Panicked depositors started a run on the bank in 1998. The government stepped in and took over, as it did many other banks in Indonesia. Now, Bank Central Asia is recapitalized and profitable, with net income growing at 26% on average over the last five years in an economy that hasn’t been as robust as many others in Asia. The bank relisted in 2000, and the government sold 51% to Farallon Capital of the U.S. and the Hartono brothers, Bambang and Robert Budi, in 2002.

If ranked by market value B.C.A, one of the more innovative and forward thinking banks in Indonesia with their “klik bca” internet banking service, comes in at 36th on the list.