Upon finishing his high school education, Bambang enrolled at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), where he studied chemical engineering.

[6] Two years after graduating from ITB, Bambang started his career in the Faculty of Economics of the University of Indonesia (UI) as a researcher and lecturer.

[6] Bambang left the university and joined the Department of Finance in 1988;[3] he was subsequently appointed as the director for financial institutions and accounting.

He later briefly served as the minister's expert staff before being promoted to the post of the director general of financial institutions in 1992.

One of the results of the agreement was the establishment of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), which was set up to promote the recovery of Indonesia's economy through the segregation of bad debts.

[4] On 22 May 1998, Bambang, who was returning home after providing a studium generale to students in the Bandung Institute of Technology, was announced by President B. J. Habibie as the finance minister in the Development Reform Cabinet.

[9] Habibie's choice to appoint a chemical engineering undergraduate from ITB for the finance minister post was motivated by his goal to implement his own version of economics.