Heaptalk, Jakarta — Executive Head of Financial Service Business Conduct Supervision, Education, and Consumer Protection (PEPK) at Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK), Friderica Widyasari Dewi, revealed that the majority of online loan operators use foreign servers.
“This can be seen from the similarity of the names of banned online loans that reappear in a short period with only slight changes in their identity (adding letters, punctuation marks, or numbers),” said Friderica.
This matter indicated a tendency for operators to conduct activities outside Indonesia and use foreign accounts to evade the reach of authorities in the archipelago. Interestingly, as Friderica explained, they target the rising generation.
“According to data from the Task Force for the Eradication of Illegal Financial Activities, the illegal online loan complaints from January 1st to June 30th, 2024, are dominated by the age range of 26 to 35 years,” she revealed.
The authority also noted complaints related to the behavior of collection agents in the fintech industry, of which about 3,017 were submitted to the OJK’s APPK.
“OJK consistently enforces disciplines for violations of regulations by financial service businesses, including the behavior of collection agents representing these businesses in performing their duties,” she said.
Meanwhile, according to OJK’s consumer service data, from January 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024, there were 5,047 complaints related to financial technology. The five largest issues are the behavior of collection agents, transaction failures or delays, external fraud, misuse of personal data, and issues related to interest fines or penalties.
