Financial Services Authority, January 6th: Pursuant to the mandate of Law Number 21 of 2011 on Financial Services Authority (OJK), as of December 31st, 2013, the banking regulatory and supervisory function has been transferred from Bank Indonesia to OJK.  In order to implement the mandate and to carry out the regulatory and supervisory function over non-bank financial industry and capital market, as well as to perform consumer education and protection duty, therefore as of December 31st, 2013, OJK has officially opened 35 offices, comprised of 6 OJK regional offices and 29 OJK representative offices in regional areas.

The inauguration of those offices will be held at 15 OJK offices of both regional and representative offices on January 6th, 2014, and will be attended by members of OJK Board of Commissioners and officials from OJK head office. The operation of OJK offices in regional areas will facilitate supervision over the whole financial services industry in regional areas, which is a part of OJKs authority.

OJK head office is located at Sumitro Djojohadikusumo building in Ministry of Finance office complex in Jakarta. Whereas OJK offices throughout Indonesia are Regional Office 1 of Greater Jakarta area, which covers working areas of Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi), Banten province, Lampung province, and all provinces in Kalimantan, with OJK offices located in cities of Banjarmasin, Bandar Lampung, Pontianak, Samarinda, and Palangkaraya. Regional Office 2 of Bandung area, which covers West Java province, with OJK offices located in cities of Cirebon and Tasikmalaya.

Regional Office 3 of Surabaya area, which covers working areas of East Java province, Bali and Nusa Tenggara, with offices located in cities of Denpasar, Kupang, Mataram, Malang, Kediri and Jember. Regional Office 4 of Semarang area, which covers working areas of Central Java province and Yogyakarta, with OJK offices located in cities of Solo, Yogyakarta, Purwokerto, and Tegal.

Regional Office 5 of Medan area, which covers working areas of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province, West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, and Riau islands, with OJK offices located in cities of Banda Aceh, Padang, Batam, Pekanbaru, Jambi, Bengkulu, and Palembang. And lastly is Regional Office 6 of Makassar area, which covers working areas of the whole provinces in Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua, with OJK offices located in cities of Jayapura, Ambon, Manado, Palu, and Kendari.

In accordance with consumer education duty, OJK is also mandated to perform consumer protection measures, therefore OJK offices in regional areas are expected to function as centers of information and public complaints. It is expected that with high level of financial literacy, Indonesian society will be more convinced in investing and dealing with financial institutions, which will certainly strengthen financial industry. This will in turn give a huge contribution to regional economy.

Apart from the duties to regulate and supervise financial services industry, and to protect consumers and society, pursuant to Law Number 1 of 2013 on micro-finance institutions, OJK is also given mandate to implement fostering, regulating, and supervising over micro-finance institutions throughout the country starting in 2015.

With the existence of OJK offices in regional areas, the offices will also continue and improve the supervision over regional banking industry, including strengthening Regional Development Bank (BPD) and Rural Bank (BPR) owned by regional government. In order to implement the duty of fostering, regulating and supervising micro-finance institutions, OJK will closely coordinate with regional government, Internal Affairs Ministry, and Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry.

This implementation of OJKs regional duty can only be fulfilled with supports from regional government and social components in regional areas. Huge support from regional government and cooperation with social components will help OJK to realize a good convening of financial services sector in regional areas in line with the aim to improve prosperity and economic level of the society.