KPPU Rules 97 Online Loan Providers Guilty in Interest Rate Cartel Case
The Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU) has ruled that 97 business actors in the peer-to-peer lending fintech services, or online loans, have been found guilty of engaging in interest rate cartel practices. Head of the Public Relations and Cooperation Bureau of KPPU, Deswin Nur, stated that the respondents violated Article 5 of Law No. 5 of 1999 on the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices and Unhealthy Business Competition.
For this violation, the online loan business actors have been imposed with various fines totalling Rp 755 billion. “This decision marks the end of one of the largest business competition cases ever handled by KPPU, both in terms of the number of respondents and the scope of the industry that directly impacts the wider public,” Deswin said in an official statement on Thursday, 26 March 2026.
Deswin explained that based on the examination of evidence and facts revealed at the trial, the Commission Panel concluded that there had been an agreement to set interest rates and or economic benefits by the respondents. According to him, the setting of an upper limit on interest rates that was far above the market equilibrium level was non-binding and ineffective in protecting consumers.
Furthermore, the setting of the upper interest rate limit is considered to potentially function as a mechanism that facilitates price coordination among business actors. Deswin said that in such conditions, the existence of the upper limit directs the expectations and pricing strategies of business actors, thereby encouraging the formation of aligned behaviour in setting interest rates. “As a result, this policy reduces the intensity of price competition and hinders competitive dynamics in the online loan market,” he stated.
The online loan interest rate cartel case has been ongoing since last year. Previously, the Indonesian Joint Funding Fintech Association (AFPI) rejected allegations of an agreement to determine the maximum interest rate limit for online loans or price fixing.
According to AFPI General Chairman Entjik S. Djafar, the KPPU’s allegations were inaccurate because AFPI’s regulation of the maximum interest rate limit was intended to protect consumers from predatory lending practices by illegal online loans (pinjol). “The maximum limit regulation was also a directive from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) at that time. So, there was absolutely no element of agreement in it,” Entjik said in an official statement, quoted on Sunday, 14 September 2025.
OJK has also stated that AFPI’s regulation of the maximum loan interest rate is a directive from the authority. “The setting of economic benefit limits by AFPI was carried out to provide protection to the public from high interest rates, maintain the integrity of the pindal industry, and distinguish legal pinjol from illegal ones,” said the Executive Head of Supervision for Financing Institutions, Venture Capital Companies, Microfinance Institutions, and Other Financial Service Institutions of OJK, Agusman, in a written response sheet on Sunday, 7 September 2025.