OJK: Teachers Must Be Year Old About Financial Services Products So They Don't Get Trapped In Illegal Loans

JAKARTA - Chief Executive of the Behavior Supervisory of Financial, Education and Protection Business Actors of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Friderica Widyasari Dewi stated that teachers must know about information on financial service products.

"You don't have to go too deep, but at least you know what banking, insurance, capital markets, pension funds, etc.," he said in a Training of Trainers activity for teachers with the theme "Finance Smart Teachers, Realize A Prosperous Future" in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday, May 20.

In addition, teachers are said to have to know which financial services institutions are legal and illegal.

Based on OJK data, 42 percent of victims of illegal loans (pinjol) are teachers. This figure exceeds other victims such as people who were laid off (21 percent), housewives (18 percent), employees (9 percent), and students (3 percent).

He said that his party focused the teacher as one of the 10 main segments that needed to obtain educational, literacy and consumer protection content. For Friderica, teachers as teachers must have a good understanding of finance.

"Outside the country, ladies and gentlemen, knowledge of finance is an essential life skills, meaning that the ability or skills of life are very important that everyone must give. We believe finance is one of the most important. Whatever major is taken, for example, he will focus on being an engineer, nuclear engineering, or whatever profession is needed, or will he become a doctor and so on, he still has to be financially literate," he said.

On this occasion, he emphasized that each country has a focus on teachers and educators regarding financial literacy. The organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) noted that higher financial literacy affects the better financial condition of individuals.

Ladies and gentlemen are agents of change, agents of development that we really hope for to provide education, convey information about financial services. In essence, all financial products and services exist to help our lives, improve our lives, improve our abilities. However, if the user is not fit, it is not appropriate, not welfare, but it can harm all of us," said Friderica.