Sharp Increase in Borrower Information Requests in SLIK Since the Pandemic

Five recent college graduates failed to secure jobs due to failing credit score checks. This issue has been widely discussed on social media since last week.

The issue was posted by a Twitter user named @kawtuz. In their tweet, they recounted how their workplace rejected five job applicants because their credit scores were at the maximum threshold, namely "Kol 5".

The company, operating in the financial sector, implements a standard credit score check for all job applicants. The discovery of this "red zone" score was reportedly clarified to those involved.

"@kawtuz" tweeted on Monday (August 21, 2023): "Crazy, 5 fresh grads applied to my workplace, none of them passed because of BI Checking Kol 5, wow."

"Kol," or collectibility, is a 1-5 scale used in banking to measure the smoothness of credit or debt repayment from debtors or borrowers. According to the Ministry of Finance's website, the higher the Kol score, the higher the indication of non-performing loans.

The BI checking referred to is the Credit Information System (SIP) by Bank Indonesia. Since 2018, SIP has been transferred to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) under the name Financial Information Service System (SLIK).

The OJK website states that SLIK can be used to facilitate fund provision, implement credit or financing risk management, assess debtor quality, manage human resources for SLIK reporters, verify cooperation between SLIK reporters and third parties, and improve financial industry discipline.

In SLIK, the OJK displays information on debtors or "ideb". The OJK states that debtors can request an "ideb" report in their name from the OJK or from the SLIK reporter who provides funding facilities to the debtor in question.

OJK statistics show that requests for "ideb" for credit score checks have reached 2.7 million since January 2018. The number has been increasing year by year.

Requests for information skyrocketed since the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically in 2020. In January 2020, the number reached 7.5 million reports. By July 2020, information requests had exceeded 10.1 million reports. Afterward, information requests consistently exceeded 10 million reports per month.

The highest number of information requests in SLIK occurred in March 2023, reaching 19.1 million reports, as shown in the graph.

(See also: Vehicle Loans Increase, So Do Problem Loans)

Anticipating Online Debt

According to CNBC Indonesia, Friderica Widyasari Dewi, the OJK's Executive Head of Supervision of the Conduct of Financial Service Business Actors, Education, and Consumer Protection, stated that the failure of five fresh graduates to obtain employment could raise awareness among young people about the seriousness of online debt.

Especially since buy now pay later (BNPL) is linked to SLIK. This means that any outstanding debt will affect a person's track record, primarily their credit history.

SLIK will also show the debtor's credit history. This history can be accessed by anyone, as long as they input the debtor's National Identity Card (NIK) number.

"So, young people should be aware that they shouldn't trifle with online debt, thinking 'after that I'll change my number, they can't collect it anymore'. That's not how it works. Because if you use your KTP, everything will be recorded in SLIK," said Kiki, her nickname, as quoted on Saturday (August 26, 2023).

The OJK is also still developing SLIK. Following the viral tweet, Kiki said that people are actively checking their credit scores on SLIK.

The OJK is also establishing a Fintech Lending Data Center (Pusdafil). Through this, online loan applications (pinjol) will be integrated with the OJK's SLIK. Outstanding online debt will be easier to monitor.

"These people, if they know that their data is in SLIK, they will be careful [in applying for loans]. But if they know that pinjol doesn't enter SLIK data, [they] tend not to pay," said Kiki.

(See also: Trend of Non-Performing Loans from Online Lenders Increases in the First Half of 2023)