Dormant Accounts Called a Ticking Time Bomb for the Financial System
Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW) has spotlighted the case of hundreds of billions of rupiah vanishing from dormant accounts at one of the state-owned banks. IAW states that this matter warrants serious attention for the national financial system.
IAW also assesses this event as not merely internal wrongdoing, but a systemic failure involving multiple state institutions.
IAW Secretary Iskandar Sitorus mentioned that four main institutions must share responsibility. “It is not one institution that failed. This is a collective failure,” Iskandar said in Jakarta, quoted on Wednesday, 29 April 2026.
The four institutions are the Financial Services Authority (OJK), Bank Indonesia (BI), the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), and the Police.
He explained that the case of the missing funds contains shocking facts. Hundreds of billions of rupiah were transferred in just 17 minutes through 42 transactions to five different accounts.
“What failed is not that the thieves are clever, but the supervisory system that was asleep,” Iskandar stated.
IAW assesses that the OJK, as the banking regulator, failed to carry out its primary mandate of early detection. Moreover, with full authority from supervision, examination to investigation, such a large anomaly should have been prevented from the start.
“With such great power, why was there no alarm? This is what OJK must answer,” he concluded.
IAW also spotlighted BI as the manager of the national payment system. Large transactions with high frequency are assessed to be able to trigger a risk-based supervisory system.
“If Rp204 billion can pass through in 17 minutes without an alarm, this is not just a gap, it is a systemic threat,” Iskandar emphasised.
On the other hand, according to him, PPATK had previously warned of the potential misuse of dormant accounts. However, the mass blocking measures taken instead drew public criticism.
“PPATK ultimately became the firefighter. They arrived after the fire grew large,” he said.
As for the Police, they are assessed to have moved quickly in enforcement, but only at the final stage. “The police are always present after the incident. This is a recurring pattern that shows the prevention system is not working,” he said.
IAW assesses that in a healthy system, all four institutions should work in an integrated manner.
Suspicious transactions should be detected, blocked, and prevented before the funds are transferred. However, the facts on the ground show layered failures.