Financial Watchdog Assess Digitization, Links to Money Laundering

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the Financial Transaction Report and Analysis Center (PPATK) Ivan Yustiavananda in a webinar on Wednesday highly commends the positive impact of digitization on economic growth but believes at the same time to be a gateway to accelerating money laundering.

“The regulation must not be in the grey area if digitization does not want to be misused by money launderers. Watchdog agencies must be clear, law enforcers must suffice. If not, digitization will only disrupt Indonesia’s economy,” said Ivan in the webinar on August 3 touted “Towards a Cashless Society” in Jakarta, Antaranews reported. 

Ivan believes that money launderers would often start their crime by using digital financial products that are difficult to detect or trace back, such as cryptocurrency Bitcoin. This will prove a hurdle for Indonesian authorities as this crypto coin is still considered a newly regulated product by the Trade Ministry's Futures Exchange Supervisory Board (Bappebti). 

“PPATK must be utilized to detect money laundering that uses digital development. Banks can also file reports to PPATK,” Ivan added. PPATK currently receives, on average, 50,000 transaction reports every passing hour.

In the webinar, he added that the PPATK once requested a restriction against cash transactions, which initially was meant to urge people to conduct transactions with banking systems that in the end would help with possible crime detection, especially money laundering. “We once pushed for the legalization of the Bill,” said Ivan.

ANTARA

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