Market Overview and Applicable Regulations on Peer-to-Peer Lending Business in Indonesia

It has been two years since the enactment of Regulation POJK 77/2016 by the Financial Service Authority (OJK), making peer-to-peer (P2P) lending a flourishing industry in Indonesia. Being one of Southeast Asia’s largest economies, Indonesia has more than 260 million people, and 96 million of them are unbanked, according to the World Bank’s Findex report.

As a result, there are massive opportunities for P2P lending business in Indonesia. Based on a study done by the OJK, as of October 2018, borrowers through P2P loaned a total of IDR 15,990,143,141,355. This amount was shocking because it grew approximately 433% in 9 months from January 2018 to October 2018. Furthermore, P2P lending businesses that are currently registered at the OJK have hit 88. These registered P2P companies are all under the supervision of the OJK.

As P2P lending has made a huge mark in Indonesia, this article aims to help you understand more about the P2P lending landscape in the country.

Peer-to-Peer Lending Market Overview in Indonesia

P2P lending is the loan done through online platform by matching borrowers and lenders. The P2P lending platform, an application or a website is operated by a financial service provider and it matches the right lender with the borrower.

There are so many opportunities in the fintech industry, especially P2P lending businesses that investors can tap into. This is due to the large young population present in Indonesia with 40% of them unbanked, high internet and smartphone penetration. The geographical challenges and the lack of credit history have made traditional banks even harder to reach this unbanked population as well as the underbanked SME. Therefore, it poses challenges for individuals and small businesses to get loans from commercial banks with reasonable rates.

The unavailability of loans for individuals and SMEs has caused Indonesia a loss of GDP at US$130 billion, about 14% of the total GDP. However, the rapid development of P2P lending and overall fintech industry for the last two years have increased the borrowers through P2P by 38 times and boosted the GDP in Indonesia by IDR 25.97 trillion.

Read also: The Impact of Illegal Fintech Practices in Indonesia

Successful Peer-to-Peer Startups in Indonesia

As of 2018, 40 P2P service providers gained authorisation from the OJK. Some of the notable P2P startups that have made a strong presence in Indonesia are as follows:

Investree

This is a marketplace that links borrowers and investors. Terms and conditions are applied in this platform to fit both parties’ demand. Investree is well-known for its high return to investors and lower interests to borrowers.

Koinworks

Koinworks is one of Indonesia’s leading P2P lending platforms. It provides investment options to investors through risk scores based on their requirements.

Amartha
It is P2P lending for loans focusing on SME business owners.

Modalku
Their main customers are also SME business owners, and the investors are from retails and institutions.

Aktivaku
A P2P lending marketplace that partners with Go-Jek.

Regulations on Peer-to-Peer Lending Business in Indonesia

One thing that is worth mentioning is that P2P lending can only keep flourishing when the government, borrowers, lenders and financial providers have improved their governance, understanding and due diligence towards P2P lending. Several regulations have recently been enforced for the security of both borrowers and lenders, as well as the development of Indonesia’s P2P.

As discussed earlier, the authority that is responsible for the governance and monitoring of P2P lending is the OJK. P2P lending was included under the supervision of OJK in December 2016.

In the beginning of 2018, OJK announced that all companies are required to obtain the P2P permit before starting and operating the P2P businesses. This measure and enforcement was done for the prevention of fraud, especially asking money from investors when there is actually no loan. Under the regulation, it is mandatory for P2P companies to have a minimum of US$200,000 for operation and a maximum of US$150,000 for loan amount.

Ready to Start Your Business in Indonesia?

Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you require further information on how to set up a fintech business, particularly P2P lending, in Indonesia. In addition to providing detailed information, we can also assist you with its establishment.

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