Task Force Will Definitely Find 38 Bank Accounts Involved In Illegal Loans At The End Of 2023

Rupiah illustration (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - At the end of 2023, the Illegal Financial Activity Eradication Officer Unit (Satgas Pasti) has found 38 bank accounts or virtual accounts reported by the public related to illegal online loan activities.

Previously, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) had also asked to block more than 85 accounts suspected of being linked to illegal online loans since September 2023.

Chief Executive of the Behavior Supervisory of Financial Services Business Actors, Education and Protection of OJK Consumers, Friderica Widyasari Dewi, conveyed that in this regard, the Task Force had submitted a blocking of the intended account to the bank supervisory work unit at OJK to then order the bank to block it.

"This effort will continue to be carried out to further suppress the illegal online loan ecosystem in Indonesia," said the woman who is familiarly called Kiki in her statement, Thursday, January 11.

However, Kiki also said this was in line with OJK's commitment to maintain financial system integrity by cleaning up the use of banking and other financial sectors from criminal activities as well as in facilitating online gambling.

In the future, OJK will continue to coordinate and cooperate with various parties to protect the public from the dangers of online gambling which can be economically and socially detrimental, through the PASTI Task Force forum.

Kiki conveyed that related to handling online gambling, in principle the root of the problem lies in handling rampant online gambling advertisements which are also the domain of the authority of Kominfo. There are so many modes of online gambling bidding that are increasingly appearing on social media.

"Several examples of fraudulent bidding mode include gambling sites using the children's fairy tale website mode, clickbait methods using attractive women/men's advertising models but apparently openly promoting online gambling," he explained.

According to Kiki, the steps prepared by the OJK for this year will certainly intensify the effective handling throughout 2023, especially through blocking online gambling accounts in the banking sector.

From each sector of Finance, in the future there will be efforts to strengthen the prevention of the use of financial products/services in the sector to facilitate the online gambling crime.

For information, the findings of illegal financial entities became the highest throughout 2023 with a total of 2,248 loans. This blocking also increased significantly from the previous year which only reached 698 loans.