W

ith the court proceedings still ongoing into the death of a customer while in the hands of Citibank debt collectors, the central bank is under new pressure to act on public outcry over reported physical abuse by Bank UOB Indonesia debt collectors.

Speaking at a hearing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Halim Alamsyah said UOB could have its permits revoked should the bank be found guilty in court of illegal conduct.

“We will revoke Bank UOB’s permits if they are proven guilty,” Halim told lawmakers overseeing finance and banking.

Muji Harjo and Budi Prasetyo, two alleged victims of debt collectors, as well as representatives from Bank UOB were also present during the hearing. Muji said that he was abused when he met with the debt collectors in Jl. Sunda in Bandung, West Java, on May 13, 2010.

“I met them on Jl. Sunda and they began to verbally and physically abuse me … I had to go to Bandung’s Borromeus hospital with a cracked eye socket,” said Muji, who lost a legal battle against UOB after the Bandung administrative court rejected his Rp 10 billion (US$ 1.1 million) lawsuit against the bank.

Muji claimed that he had reported the abuse to BI “10 times”, but failed to receive an appropriate response.

Although Muji was a UOB customer, Budi Prasetyo was allegedly abused in September 2011 by a debt collector without reason as he did not owe the bank anything and was not even a client.

The UOB debt collector mistook Budi for his brother-in-law, Budi Kuat.

“The debt collector asked my name and I told him my name was Budi. As I finished speaking, he hit me. I tried to convince him by showing my identity card but he ignored me and kept on hitting me. He tried to force me to admit that I was Budi Kuat,” he said.

Budi said that he had submitted an official request for an apology from UOB and its debt collectors but none of them had responded.

UOB president director Arman B. Arief denied any wrongdoing during the meeting and claimed that the bank had acted according to its standard operating procedures.

Arman denied that Muji was abused by UOB debt collectors. “[Muji] met with several other people who were not our debt collectors,” Arman said.

Arman also said that Budi was the one who provoked the bank’s debt collector. “There was no abuse, Budi shoved the debt collector,” he said.

Lawmaker Harry Azhar Azis, said BI had to deliver on its promise to punish Bank UOB if the latter was proven to have used violent debt collectors.

The alleged incidents involving Muji and Budi have brought further light to bear on the shady practices of the debt collecting industry.

Last year saw a particularly high-profile case involving Citibank debt collectors who were accused of assaulting one of the bank’s clients, Irzen Octa.

Octa died on March 29 after he complained about his credit card debt at the Citibank branch office on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta. The police have named the Citibank debt collection leader along with three of his team as suspects in Octa’s death.

BI spokesman Difi Johansyah said that the central bank had received only a few reports regarding debt collection incidents following Octa’s death.

“There have only been a few incidents and we managed to mediate between clients and banks to settle their differences,” Difi said.

—JP/ Hans David Tampubolon