In the past month, Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (Ojk) has approved Regulation 8 Of 2023 to mitigate money laundering and asset theft, as Indonesia prepares to become a member of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF). FATF Membership is dependent on the Integrity of local financial service institutions which maybe the motivation driving OJK's decision to implement new time limits for financial insitutions to use public accountants and public accounting firms.
As of mid-May, the same accountants may only be utilized for a maximum of seven cumulative years by commercial banks, issuers, and public companies, and for a maximum of five consecutive years by other institutions. At the end of the term of engagement, new accounting firms must be hired. In addition, to provide accountability, OJK has also now: apolo.ojk.go.id as a platform for financial institutions to submit newly mandated reports regarding the appointment of accountants and/or firms as well as any changes in auditing activities related to such accountants and/or firms.
Since the new OJK Chairman, Mahendra Siregar, got appointed in June of 2022, a series of structural and institutional reforms have been issued such as the Omnibus Law for Financial Sector together with the Financial Ministry. OJK has also started to create some efforts to further improve financial transaction security and corporate surveillance through OJK Regulations No. 8 of 2023 on the Implementation of Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT), and Counter-Proliferation Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CPF) Program.
