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Stung by the difficulties it has faced in trying to set up branches overseas, PT Bank Mandiri on Monday asked the House of Representative to push the central bank to do more lobbying on behalf of Indonesian lenders looking to expand into foreign markets.

“Indonesia’s central bank [Bank Indonesia] should actively lobby other countries’ central banks,” said Zulkifli Zaini, the president director of Bank Mandiri, the country’s largest lender by assets.

He described for lawmakers Bank Mandiri’s difficulties establishing branches in Shanghai. Zulkifli said Chinese banking regulations did not allow the Indonesian state lender to perform transaction in yuan for three years due to its status as a foreign bank.

He also recounted some of the problems Bank Mandiri faced in Malaysia, where it was hoping to tap into the country’s large market of Indonesian domestic workers.

Bank Mandiri was granted an “incorporated-subsidiary” license by Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysia’s central bank, meaning that the Indonesian lender needed to pay a fee of 300 million ringgit ($94 million), a figure Zulkifli said far exceeded the cost of opening a branch.

It is still deciding whether or not to accept the license.

Currently, to serve customers who want to transfer money from Malaysia to Indonesia, or vice versa, Bank Mandiri has to rely on the services of Mandiri International Remittance Sdn Bhd, a non-banking company that only performs cash transfers to Bank Mandiri accounts.

Zulkifli said all the regulations Indonesian banks had to deal with in overseas markets reduced their competitiveness.

“We need more support to put us on the same playing field,” he said, adding that the regulations in neighboring countries stood in contrast to the relative ease with which foreign banks were able to do business here.

He pointed out that in Indonesia, foreign investors can own up to 99 percent of an Indonesian bank. Prior to the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the limit was 85 percent, but the rules were liberalized to help Indonesia recover.

Attracted by high rates of return, foreign investors have been snapping up Indonesian banks in recent years. But as the central bank reviews the laws on foreign ownership of banks, some are questioning the benefits of the wide-open investment policy.

Zulkifli, for one, thinks Indonesia should begin placing tougher limits on bank ownership by foreign investors, and suggested that the country should only offer licenses to foreign banks from countries that reciprocate with favorable regulations.

Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution noted last week that in the open global economy, other countries had set up of what he called “qualitative requirements” like the ones proposed by Zulkifli.

“We are unlikely to retract the 99 percent [ownership] limit, because our government has an agreement with the WTO. But we can make qualitative requirements,” Darmin said.

Andi Rachmat, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said members of the House could help lobby overseas governments by being directly involved in negotiations on banking issues.

“In China, if we know what the obstacles are, we can help to lobby,” he said.