The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has blocked up to eight thousand bank accounts suspected to be linked to online gambling transactions as of August 30, 2024, OJK’s chief executive of banking supervision, Dian Ediana Rae, informed.
“The number of blocks requested by OJK to banks reached around eight thousand online gambling accounts, including gambling holding accounts spread across various banks,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
He also appealed to banks to examine customer accounts suspected of being used for holding online gambling funds.
Currently, the OJK is collaborating with the Communication and Informatics Ministry to narrow the movements of online gambling perpetrators and facilitators, including by freezing perpetrators’ assets.
“If any suspicious financial transaction related to online gambling is found, the bank can limit or eliminate customer access,” he explained.
Furthermore, he requested banks to proactively handle online gambling cases by reporting suspicious transactions to the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).
Head of the OJK’s literacy, financial inclusion, and community department, Aman Santosa, informed that the OJK Banking Business Orientation Survey (SBPO) for the third quarter of 2024 showed that all banks are equipped with systems to detect online gambling accounts.
According to him, several banks are also developing online gambling transaction pattern detection systems.
Besides carrying out independent detection of online gambling accounts, banks are also working to eradicate online gambling by checking the conformity of customer data with the online gambling watchlist prepared by OJK, PPATK, or other law enforcement officers, he said.
If a match is found with bank customer data, enhanced due diligence and blocking is carried out, Santosa added.
The bank can limit or even eliminate the access of such customers to opening bank accounts or obtaining additional loan facilities.
In the future, banks will continue to implement strategies to step up the eradication of online gambling and carry out mitigation to prevent online gambling perpetrators from using banking services, he informed.
Translator: Bayu Saputra, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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