Pawnshop vies for hard-pressed students

Pawnshop vies for hard-pressed students

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned pawnshop company Perum Pegadaian
plans to open stores right on the doorstep of its biggest clients
-- inside university campuses, Antara reported.

In big cities like Bandung, "university students are our
biggest clients", Ketut Sethyon, head of the company's research
and development unit, said during a seminar in Bandung, West
Java, on Saturday.

"They account for 38 percent of our clients," Ketut said at
the seminar to discuss pawnshops as an alternative funding
resource for students organized by state-run Padjadjaran
University. "Then come workers, entrepreneurs, housewives and
civil servants," he said.

He explained that the pawnshop company has been slow in
setting up shops on campuses, while banks, post offices and
telecommunication companies have all opened up branches there.

Ketut said the pawnshop company has a major image problem
because it is still widely seen as a "poor man's" institution,
not a respectable association that offers short term loans with
low interest.

Many people, even students, are reluctant to admit their
profession when filling in the forms to borrow money from pawn
shops, he said.

He said the image was formed during the Dutch colonial rule,
because pawnshops were then indeed for second class citizens
because banks were strictly for the elite.

Haryo Martodirdjo, a Padjadjaran staff lecturer, stressed
that most Indonesian university students are not mature enough to
manage their finances.

Most still resort to borrowing from friends rather than
turning to formal institutions like pawnshops, Haryo said. (emb)