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Understanding legal status of fintech companies
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The Financial Services Authority (OJK) logo is seen on the frontispiece at its headquarters in Jakarta. (kontan.co.id/File)
T
he amount of financial technology peer-to-peer lending (fintech P2P) has grown rapidly in Indonesia. The Financial Services Authority (OJK) reported that as many as 99 fintech P2P companies had registered with it by February 2019.
However, only one fintech P2P company has obtained a license from the OJK, namely PT Pasar Dana Pinjaman under the platform name “Danamas”. The “registered” and/or “licensed” fintech P2P companies are considered to be legal fintech.
In other words, unregistered and/or unlicensed ones shall be deemed to be illegal fintech P2P companies.
The OJK has identified and categorized as many as 231 such illegal fintech P2P companies and/or platforms as of February 2019. The actual number may be much higher since the categorization was solely based on the findings of investigations conducted by the Investment Alert Task Force of the OJK.
The legality of a fintech P2P company holds a significant role in a transaction agreement made, or in using a platform provided by the relevant fintech P2P company.
Transactions conducted by a legal fintech company shall be considered valid and binding to the relevant parties, namely the lender, organizer (fintech P2P company) and/or borrower. Otherwise, if the transaction is conducted by or using a platform provided by an illegal fintech P2P company, the transaction would be considered invalid and non-binding and result in the cancellation of the transaction.
In light of the foregoing, it is important to pay more attention to the types of illegal fintech companies, particularly for the lender and borrower.
