Deputy commissioner for supervision of the non-bank financial industry (IKNB) at the Financial Services Authority (OJK), M. Ikhsanudin, made the remarks at a media briefing on National Fintech Month (BFN) at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) in Jakarta on Wednesday.
"When next year (2024) Indonesia faces a big democratic party, this fintech facility will play a strategic role because it will be really needed by the community," Ikhsanudin said.
He noted that 2024 will be the year of democracy when there will be presidential and vice presidential elections, followed by legislative and regional head elections.
If the presidential-vice presidential election takes place in two rounds, many economic activities will be disrupted because the public focus will be on the election process.
At such a time, online loan services will be really needed by the public so the opportunity can be seized by fintech companies, he underlined.
Furthermore, Ikhsanudin said that the majority of fintech companies are still involved in peer-to-peer lending, that is, engaged in money lending services, while the others are involved in fintech crowdfunding, microfinancing, digital payments, and so on.
"Peer-to-peer usually gets a lot of complaints so we have to fix it together from the start," he added.
He said that the government and fintech company associations need to continue to work together to encourage improvements in the fintech industry so that it becomes more beneficial for society, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
"The thing called equity crowdfunding, now we are facing climate change, so now there are carbon exchanges and so on, if there wasn't fintech, where would we be?" he asked.
As per the OJK's records, the number of fintech lenders reached 101 as of August 2023, consisting of 94 conventional players and 7 sharia players.
The value of assets owned by conventional players was Rp7.2 trillion and sharia players Rp139 billion. Meanwhile, the value of total liabilities was Rp3.8 trillion and Rp111 billion, respectively, and total equity was Rp3.3 trillion and Rp28 billion, respectively.
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Translator: Aloysius Lewokeda, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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