Indofund Officially Holds the OJK Permit as a P2P Lending Fintech

PT Bursa Acceleration Indonesia (Indofund) which is a subsidiary of PT Surya Fajar Capital Tbk (SFAN) has officially obtained permission from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) as one of the p2p lending fintech players. 

The permit is stated in the OJK letter number No.S-770/NB.223/2021 issued on August 24, 2021. By obtaining the permit, Indofund means that it has fulfilled and completed all the licensing processes needed to run its business activities. 

“This is expected to further increase the confidence of stakeholders, both lenders, borrowers, and other strategic partners in transacting and collaborating with Indofund,” said SFAN CEO and Indofund commissioner Hary Herdiyanto in his official statement, Wednesday (25/8). ). 

Hary also stated that obtaining this permit was in line with the target set by management at the beginning of the year, where Indofund’s focus this year was on completeness of permits and maintaining effective & efficient operations in the midst of the Covid-19 storm so that the current financing ratio or TKB90 was maintained. 

In the future, the Company hopes that this achievement can be followed by other subsidiaries who are currently also in the preparation and licensing process, to support the implementation of the expansion strategy in the company’s digital services or fintech. 

“So that in the coming year, when the Covid-19 pandemic storm is expected to have subsided, the Company and its subsidiaries can focus more on business expansion activities which had been delayed in the past 1-2 years due to this pandemic condition,” he added. 

Fintech P2P Lending Looking for Ways to Expand Outside Java 

The regulator’s call for the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending financial technology industry to expand its social impact outside Java was taken seriously by the players. 

Some of the top platforms seem to be starting to formulate strategies, and even starting to expand, to be prepared if the Financial Services Authority (OJK) later brings these recommendations into the latest rules of the game. 

For your information, the OJK assesses that the ‘branding’ of the fintech lending industry as a provider of capital or personal loans to the unbankable & underserved in Indonesia, will be more pronounced if the industry begins to target the population of this segment evenly throughout the region. 

The reason is, based on OJK fintech lending statistics throughout semester I/2021, of the total loan distribution to players of IDR 70.88 trillion, the portion to Java with 6 provinces in it reached IDR 57.93 trillion, the remaining IDR 12.92 trillion to 28 provinces outside Java. 

Meanwhile, in terms of outstanding loans remaining atIDR 23.37 trillion as of June 2021, Java took a portion of IDR 18.97 trillion, while outside Java was only IDR 4.4 trillion. 

This value is also reflected because the number of active borrower accounts in Java has touched 20.3 million entities, while outside Java is only 2.5 million entities. 

Meanwhile, to prevent the gap between Java and Outside Java from getting bigger, OJK plans its appeal to be included in a new regulation, in which each platform will be set to channel a minimum of 20 percent of its total annual funding distribution during the current year outside Java. 

Recently, OJK has also required registered licensed fintech lending platforms to hold educational programs at least 12 times in different cities and provinces with the proportion 6 times in Java and 6 times outside Java. 

As for platforms with a license status, 3 times a year, with a proportion of 1 time in Java and 2 times outside Java. 

Fintech Intensively Collaborates with Digital Banks 

Collaboration between fintech and banking continues to increase. The collaboration is needed to cover the shortcomings between digital bank and fintech. 

The Indonesian Joint Funding Fintech Association (AFPI) stated that the presence of fintech has provided solutions that can complement the banking ecosystem through the various services provided. 

The presence of fintech is very important to provide financial access for the unbanked and underbanked people.