VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 18 - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has asked peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms to report to the agency from April 1, 2021, as a precautionary measure against money laundering and terror financing.

"Also this year, as of April 1, 2021, there is an obligation to report, in line with the application of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, to P2P lending platforms. This is also a challenge. Anyway this industry must not be used as media for money laundering and terrorism financing," OJK deputy director for fintech control, research and development, Munawar, said during an online discussion here on Wednesday.

Besides the challenge of ensuring the fintech industry is safe for consumers, OJK still considers the COVID-19 pandemic as a hurdle, since it has a significant impact on the distribution of loans at P2P lending platforms, he stated.

The distribution of loans at P2P lending platforms declined at the onset of the pandemic in April and May, 2020 and has recovered since August, 2020, he observed.

"This means that we are optimistic about the future, in January, February, and beyond, in line with the national economy that has begun to improve. Thus, the amount of loans distributed through P2P lending platforms is getting higher accordingly," he informed.

"Of course, it will not be 100-percent the same as the previous years in terms of growth. But, we are optimistic that it will continue to grow," he remarked.

Improving quality, including credit scoring, is also a challenge ahead, he noted.

"As per our data, the debt collection or recovery rate is still 95.22 percent. This means that 4 percent of the loans are not performing. Looking ahead, we will try to curb the non-performing rate," he stated.

Regardless of the challenges and despite pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, the fintech industry has been growing, he said.

In 2020, the fintech industry disbursed Rp74.41 trillion in loans, up 26.47 percent year-on-year, he added.

"Growth has declined, but it is still higher than the national economic growth or other industrial growth," he said.

A total of 45 million user accounts and 717 thousand lender accounts have been registered till date, he added. (Antaranews)