After weeks of screening, a government-appointed committee announced on Monday a shortlist of candidates for the Financial Services Authority (OJK) board of commissioners,

The nine-member selection committee, sanctioned by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and chaired by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, announced that 21 candidates, mostly government bureaucrats, had made it to the shortlist.

President Jokowi will select 14 names from the list before handing it over to the House of Representative, which will then conduct hearings to pick seven OJK commissioners.

The list of candidates proposed to the President, comprises individuals whose backgrounds include Bank Indonesia (BI), the OJK itself as well as the banking industry. A smaller number of candidates are from the Finance Ministry, academia and government institutions.

Prominent candidates with backgrounds in the banking industry include former chairman of the National Banks Association (Perbanas) Sigit Pramono and and current president director of state-owned pawnshop Pegadaian Riswinandi.

The shortlist, however, contains no candidates who have experience in the non-bank financial sector or capital markets. The strongest contender for future commissioner for capital market supervision is Nurhaida, the only OJK incumbent to make it to the list.

“The committee did not do a good job in selecting candidates from the non-bank financial sector. From what I see, the government has only focused on developing the banking sector,” said Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) economist Bhima Y. Adhinegara.

Bhima said he was concerned that the absence of non-bank financial sector and capital market figures would provide no incentives for the two sectors amid the fast-changing environment and the need to push financing for micro, small and medium businesses.

Compared to the banking industry, the non-bank sector comprising, among other fields, insurance, multifinance and pension fund, continues to have large untapped potential to grow with a limited number of players, said SKHA Institute for Global Competitiveness chief economist Eric Sugandi.

“Ideally, a future commissioner for non-bank supervision should have adequate knowledge [of the sector]. It would be better if they had experience in that sector either as a practitioner or regulator.”

The 21 names on the shortlist, were selected from 30 candidates who made it to the last selection phase, a face-to-face interview, after five candidates flunked the third stage in the screening process; the medical checkup and managerial assessment.

The President has 12 days until March 29 to pick 14 individuals he can recommend to the House for confirmation hearings, which are expected to wrap up on June 6.

The Supreme Court is expected to swear in appointees approved by the House on July 20.

Members of the selection committee acknowledged the lack of candidates from the sector, which was the result of the small number of candidates from that background applying in the first stage of selection. Despite their lack of exposure to the industry, some candidates have expressed their willingness to take any position related to non-bank supervision.

Committee member Tony Prasetiantono, an economics professor with the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) said he had even asked some of his friends from the non-bank financial sector to join the selection process, but none responded.

All committee members, including Sri Mulyani, said they were satisfied with the whole selection process as the parties involved in helping their task, such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) as well as the public, had provided complete historical and current data on the candidates’ backgrounds.

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Anton Hermansyah contributed to this story