In Front Of The Fintech Association, BI Boss Alludes To The Existence Of Illegal Loans: We Must Mitigate This Risk

Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo (Photo: screenshot of BI Youtube)

JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo said that the emergence of a number of illegal online loans (pinjol) was a negative excess of digital developments in the financial sector. According to him, all parties must work together to overcome this so that digitalization in the financial industry can provide optimal benefits for the community.

“We have to realize that digitalization also has a number of risks, such as shadow banking, issues of personal data protection, cyber attacks, or even now illegal online loans. All of these are of course risks that must be mitigated so that we can continue to experience the benefits of digitalization," he said through a virtual channel at the Opening of the National Fintech Month, Thursday, November 11.

Perry added, on the other hand, technology provides many advantages. He revealed that digitalization is the key to accelerating economic recovery and driving growth.

“Digitalization is essential for economic and financial inclusion. We are grateful that in the midst of a pandemic, digital economic and financial transactions have increased very quickly, both served by digital banking, by payment system companies including electronic money, as well as by e-commerce," he said.

Furthermore, the BI boss also explained that one of the digital finance segments that is growing quite rapidly is the presence of financial technology or fintech companies.

“Fintech, apart from payments, is also moving fast for crowdfunding, for peer-to-peer lending, as well as in other areas. This is where the digital financial economy ecosystem needs to be strengthened for the country," he said.

Citing data released by the Financial Services Authority (OJK), it was revealed that the total number of illegal loans that have been blocked to date is 3,515 entities. Meanwhile, the number of legal loans that have been registered and licensed by the OJK until November 2021 are recorded as 104 companies with accumulated fund distributions reaching Rp262.93 trillion.