3,516 Illegal Loans Have Been Blocked by OJK, The Legal One Can Distribute Financing Up To Nearly Rp250 Trillion

JAKARTA - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) claims to have blocked 3,516 online loan applications or loans since 2018 until now.

Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Management of OJK Logistics Anto Prabowo said the move was a joint effort with a number of related agencies, such as the Indonesian Police and the Ministry of Communications.

"The public should be wary of loan offers via SMS or Whatsapp because it is an illegal loan," he said in a written statement quoted on Sunday, October 17.

However, Anto said that until now there are still many illegal online loans that are troubling the public.

There are at least two factors that encourage the existence of pinjol still busy milling about in the audience.

“The first is from the side of illegal lenders who are still easy to upload applications or websites. Then there are also difficulties in eradicating this pinjol because many server locations are placed abroad,” he said.

“The level of literacy in the community is quite low, so it is easy to be ensnared by unofficial loan institutions. Then, they generally do not check whether the institution is legal or illegal, and the community's need to get a loan quickly has been exploited by illegal online lenders," he explained.

Anto also mentioned at least some of the characteristics of illegal borrowing, namely setting high-interest rates, large fees, unlimited fines, and billing methods that are not in accordance with the rules accompanied by terror and intimidation.

Most recently, OJK reported that the legal loan contribution had been able to disburse loans of Rp249.9 trillion as of August 31, 2021. This figure was distributed by 106 official institutions to more than 64 million borrowers throughout Indonesia.