OJK Calls Teachers To Housewives To Become Vulnerable Groups Entangled In Illegal Loans

Chief Executive of Financial Services Business Behavior Supervisory, Education, and Consumer Protection OJK Friderica Widyasari Dewi. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) revealed that quite a lot of people who were caught in illegal online loans (pinjol) were recorded, and targeted various groups. One of them is educators or teachers.

Chief Executive of Financial Services Business Behavior Supervisory, Education, and Consumer Protection OJK Friderica Widyasari Dewi said that people who are heavily entangled in illegal loans are mainly middle to lower economies.

Friderica said that one of the professions most often caught in illegal loans is teachers. Next is Housewives.

In fact, said Friderica, illegal loans also often ensnare people affected by layoffs (PHK).

Karena kalau kita lihat pinjol ilegal kan ada satu survei independent. Korbannya paling banyak nomor satu? Guru. Kasihan ya. Kemudian korban pekerjakan, jadi orang yang memang butuh. Dan juga ibu rumah tangga. Jadi kasihan banget, ucapnya dalam dialog Forum Merdeka Barat 9, Senin, 21 Agustus.

Furthermore, Friderica said, the profession is a group that is categorized as very vulnerable.

"They are very vulnerable," he said.

For your information, illegal online loans are one type of entity that is included in illegal financial activities that need to be eradicated.

Friderica revealed that the amount of public losses due to being entangled from illegal financial activities exceeded Rp139.03 trillion. This figure was taken in the 2017 to 2022 period.

"There are a lot of illegal entities that have been conveyed, that the figure is more than Rp. 100 trillion," he said.

Friderica explained that this illegal financial activity is divided into several types of entities. Starting from illegal investments, illegal online loans (pinjol), to pawns.

He said, his party together with relevant stakeholders, namely the Police and also the Ministry of Communication and Information, had stopped 6,895 entities from 2017 to August 3, 2023.

In detail, 1,194 illegal investments, 5,450 illegal loans, and 251 illegal pawns.

Furthermore, Friderica said, this happened because the level of financial literacy in the Indonesian people was still very minimal.

For this reason, he continued, OJK continues to encourage the level of financial and digital literacy in the community, in order to avoid the crime of digital financial entities.

"Financial literacy is currently 49.6 percent, if digital leasing is only 3.5 of the 1-5 scale. This means that people are not very smart," he said.

They haven't been able to distinguish between correct or incorrect information. They are not yet smart in choosing and sorting out," he continued.