The Sad Drama Behind The Ease Of Online Loans

Photo Illustration By Andry Winarko

JAKARTA - Loans or Online Loans are a fintech product (Financial Technology) where borrowers are facilitated in the loan application process because it is enough to fill in personal data in the application, upload ktp photos and selfie photos along with ktp, and in a matter of minutes the funds to be borrowed have been entered into our accounts. Several other conveniences offered by the loan, especially illegal loans, are that they do not do BI Checking or check the feasibility of borrowers whether they are blacklisted because they have other arrears, both loans and credit cards.

Because of this interesting feature, many people are interested in making loans through illegal loan applications, even though the interest offered by illegal loans is much higher than conventional banks. These conveniences also lead to many people taking illegal loans without calculation so that in the end many are in arrears of loans and have to deal with debt collectors who visit the borrower's residence.

This is what causes the loan to become a scourge that disturbs many people and becomes the talk of many parties. Pinjol suddenly became a culture that felt blue like this and created the suffering of many people. Moreover, there are many suicide cases due to the problem of borrowing.

The Center for Financial and Digital Literacy (CFDL) in its release received by VOI, reported that in 2023 25 people have become victims of suicide due to illegal online loans and Emok Bank. Bank Emok is a Sundanese term or another name for moneylenders who lend high interest, usually targeting women. CFDL also reported 51 victims of suicide or suicide attempts and became victims of murder caused by the impact and influence of borrowing. They obtained the data from media research during the period 2019 to the end of 2023 or during the implementation of the loan culture in the community. According to the CFDL Founder, Rahman Mangussara of that number, some of the victims were still children and school children.

The last case they got on December 12, 2023, was the death of a 23-year-old young man in Kediri. He was found his friend hanging in the kitchen of his house in a lifeless condition. According to his family, previously the victim was found hanging himself, who was concerned complaining about online loan problems, allegedly ending his life due to this problem.

According to Rahman, the number of suicide cases is very worrying and should have sounded a danger alarm for all parties, authorities, governments and business actors, to act immediately to overcome and prevent this from recurring.

To overcome the trappedness of the public from online loans and prevent the increase in suicide cases, Rahman suggested that the government and the authorities first and especially clean up the root of the problem, namely the family economy. Second, strict law enforcement against illegal loans. "The facts happen, that hundreds of illegal loans have been closed, but still appear again indicating that on the one hand they are not deterred and on the other hand there is a request from the public." he said.

Cyber Security Expert who is also the Director of Security for State Password Institutions, Pratama Persada, said that the number of complaints was partly due to the low level of public literacy on the basis of financial products and services so that the public could not respond to illegal loan offers, especially those related to the information provided and listed on public smartphones.

According to Data Research, the largest number of debtors is among teachers who reach 42 percent followed by layoff victims, and housewives. According to the research, the reason they owe illegal loans for various reasons, such as needing money to pay off debts, meeting urgent needs, and buying gadgets.

The risks they often face in the form of debt collector terror repeatedly on the phone and whatsapp is flooded with calls, and customer personal data is also threatened with being distributed to the public, his colleagues and colleagues. They create a sense of shame so that customers immediately pay off their debts. Not there those who have not paid because of financial difficulties will continue to increase, the terror will continue to be sent a fictitious order from the food ordering application, so sometimes it creates an argument between customer couriers because they feel they do not order and have to pay.

Dadang Wiandana, one of the victims of Pinjol from Bandung, admitted that he had been called and terrorized 20 to 50 times a day. Dadang admitted that he regretted being involved with Pinjol, "Initially he felt helped but here and there it was painful," he said, during a dialogue on a private television.

The rise of online loans, especially illegal loans, has made many parties question the role of institutions and authorized institutions, in this case OJK. According to Andi Rahmat, a former member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, who had designed the establishment of an OJK institution in the DPR. OJK has been authorized to handle technology-based financial problems in this case Pinjol. Even OJK was given a wewong as an investigator in the Pinjol case so that OJK together with other assets could drag a rogue loan loan

Pratama explained, actually there are legal instruments that regulate illegal lending, one of which is Law Number 4 of 2023 concerning Financial Sector Development and Strengthening (P2SK) which regulates that perpetrators of illegal lending and financial services who harm consumers are deliberately threatened with imprisonment of up to 10 years and fined Rp1 trillion. This is stated in the seventh part of the P2SK Law concerning Criminal Provisions related to Consumer Protection Article 305. In addition, illegal lenders who spread personal data can be subject to Article 32 paragraph (1) of the ITE Law, with a maximum imprisonment of 8 (eight) years and/or a maximum fine of Rp2,000,000,000 (two billion rupiahs).

The government has actually strictly regulated and supervised various loan business services or what is often called peer-to-peer lending (P2P Lending) by the Financial Services Authority (OJK). Not only granting permits, OJK together with AFTECH and the Indonesian Joint Funding Fintech Association (AFPI) carried out regulatory guidance and enforcement of loan applications in Indonesia. In addition, OJK is also assisted by members of the Illegal Financial Activity Eradication Task Force (Satgas Pasti) who have the authority such as the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (KemenkumHAM), Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemlu), and Police of the Republic of Indonesia (Polri). The Task Force must have stopped or blocked 2,288 illegal financial entities throughout 2023. This amount consists of 40 illegal investments and 2,248 illegal online loans (pinjol).

Earlier this year, the OJK issued the latest regulations regarding lending and joint funding based on Information Technology, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) detailing the provisions for debt collectors for peer to peer lending (P2P) online loan providers. Among them is the reduction in the imposition of interest costs and other costs, as well as late fines, limited loans should not be more than 3 platforms, billing time is also limited to only 8 nights, billing rules are tightened, emergency contacts are prohibited from collecting, and loans are required. insurance.

Reasons For The Need For MSME Funding

Reflecting on the original purpose of establishing Information Technology-Based Joint Funding, according to Hendrikus Passagi, the former Director of Financial Technology OJK's management and supervision who knew why this loan was held, around 2016. According to him, it was held because of considerations, others have gone through a long and very complex study at that time,

According to him, there are three developments, this information technology-based loan was developed in Indonesia. Among other things, because of the fact that there are still many Indonesians who are underbanked or underserved. Unbanked is a community group that does not have a bank account or does not have enough guarantees, so it is difficult to borrow money. Meanwhile, the underserve is that those who have bank accounts and have guarantees are much more than sufficient but they want sudden loans, for example at 2 a.m. and no banking can serve. Also, there is a financial gap, if we look at it and calculate from the macroeconomic side, the strength between funding and the strength of funding needs in the Republic of Indonesia occurs gap.

"In fact, it is estimated that Indonesia has around 50 million MSMEs. If only about 25 million MSMEs have in the account, they need a loan of Rp. 25 million each to the bank, Rp. 625 trillion is needed, that cannot be sufficient from bank funds," said Hendrikus at the Akbar Faizal podcast talk show, last December.

"So there is a thought that information technology-based funding platforms are needed so that existing funds from outside, such as in the United States at the North Pole, the South Pole that is connected to the internet, can contribute to providing loans to MSME players in the country. So foreign funds will flow, because people will not lend money to Indonesia, "he added.

Actually, at the beginning of the development of information technology-based funding platforms, his party had anticipated taking into account the possibility of misappropriation in these activities, even though there were no legal rules regarding this matter, his party had limited the legal loan application organizers to only access the camera display, microphone and location to their customers. Meanwhile, illegal loans and fintech at that time could access Hp as a whole. So all the contents of customer cellphones that usually contain personal data can be accessed. The rule was opposed by fellow colleagues at the OJK, because the restrictions were considered illegal, because there were no legal rules yet. But Henrikus thought that if the restrictions were not regulated it would be very dangerous, others could control the data.

The case is happening now. Especially with the large number of illegal lending companies that often escape the rules of the game. To overcome this problem, Hendrikus stated that it takes firmness from the OJK, which has the authority to organize information technology-based funding platforms. "Actually, it's easy to control it, the money doesn't come from the sky, but through bank transfers. Just tighten the rules here," he said,

Hendrikus added that actually what is valuable from this loan business is not the value of money and business. But what is more valuable is the problem of collecting data. The data can be worth up to trillions. The data relates to the reading of a person's habit and habits. It can be used for politics and even about the defense of a nation.