The Rise Of Illegal Loans Gets The Attention Of The Queen Of The Netherlands Maxima: Strengthening Important Mitigation In The Digital Finance Era

JAKARTA - The Dutch Empress Maxima participated in The 3rd Indonesia Fintech Summit (IFS) 2021, which is a series of agenda items for the G20 meeting. In her virtual speech, the Queen of the Netherlands directly highlighted fintech players in Indonesia to be careful along with the advancement of technological innovation.

"Advanced technology, for example with the presence of a super-app, will further increase the risk gap," he said as reported by Bank Indonesia, Monday, December 13.

According to him, stakeholders must continue to monitor it by utilizing technological advances to mitigate the existing risks.

"The anticipation of this risk can be done in close collaboration with strong associations," he said.

In addition, Ratu Maxima emphasized that the government has a very important role to play in developing a vision for the future of the digital world, including identifying the governance needed and the infrastructure needed.

“Providing standardized infrastructure will greatly support the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector. One of them has been done in Indonesia with the QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) innovation which was launched in 2019," he said.

In the previous VOI report, Ratu Maxima was noted to be paying more attention to Indonesia's economic activities in the digital realm. At the G20 summit meeting in Rome, Italy some time ago, he expressed his appreciation to President Joko Widodo for supporting the development of MSMEs by cooperating with online motorcycle taxi services (ojol).

"Ratu Maxima also appreciates Indonesia's inclusive economic program with the presence of online motorcycle taxi services," said a press release from the Palace on Sunday, October 31.

As is known, the development of the digital financial industry in Indonesia is quite massive. One that is currently mushrooming is the existence of online loan companies (pinjol) which are part of financial technology (fintech).

The presence of the loan is considered to provide an opportunity to expand financial inclusion in the community, especially for those who are not bankable. However, the existence of borrowing entities is also accompanied by the proliferation of illegal loans.

This condition is exacerbated by the level of public financial literacy which is quite low even though the level of financial inclusion is increasing rapidly. This is because a high level of inclusion with low literacy indicates a large potential risk because even though people have access to finance, in fact they do not understand the functions and risks.