BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – A massive practice of illegal investment which has already admitted to have obtaining the permit from Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, OJK) is being sort of attention by President Joko Widodo. People are asked to be really careful in responding investment offer, especially when it comes with promising profits.
Jokowi also asks OJK to tighten the supervision, so that there would be no loopholes for crimes which have the potential to harm the public. OJK must be more intense in urging and educating the public, especially regarding legal and logical aspects if there is an investment offer.
In response to this, an Economic Expert and Observer as well as a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) of Universitas Pasundan, Acuviarta Kartabi, assessed that the level of public literacy regarding investment tends to be low.
Therefore, OJK must intensify to improve public literacy and observe the massive effort of investment in the field. Although illegal investments have often been reported, its practices in the field are literally becoming more ‘popular’ within society; and have caused a lot of victims.
“Policy literacy from OJK and supervision issues are still in need to be improved. I see that practice of illegal investment keeps repeated; while people have not been literate yet about what the mitigation risk on illegal investment really is,” he said on Thursday, 20 January 2022.
He also said that every investment which attracts people or demands people’s money should have been watched and supervised by OJK. Not only illegal investment, online loan which has no clear operation and permit also needs to be investigated.
“People must be educated with preparations. For example, if the want to invest, check its legality in OJK first; including its permit certificate/ license, because there are people who use it to withdraw funds in the community. We certainly cannot do that, can we?” he explained.
Other than OJK, law enforcement officers also have an obligation to get rid and take actions against illegal investment before it caused any victims. In the era of digitalization, cyber team should have been faster in monitoring its movement in the field.
“Usually, officers will only carry out investigations when there is a case report. In the future, in order to anticipate any possibilities, there is nothing wrong if they do early investigation without having to wait for public reports,” he said.
Most importantly, people must be careful in selecting investment, especially if you are offered a high profit which seem unreasonable.
The method commonly found is to use popular/ important figures to attract people’s attention. The other is that, investor recruitment system is mostly through network of friends or family by offering profits above the market average.
“I think people are not risk-aware, but only focus on big profits without seeing the potential risks,” he concluded. (Reta)*