Bappebti Talks About Ombudsman’s Allegation of Delaying Crypto Exchange Permits

Armfalcon.com, JAKARTA — The Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti) has spoken out in response to the Ombudsman’s accusations of maladministration by delaying crypto exchange business licenses by up to two years.

Head of CoFTRA, Didid Noordiatmoko emphasized that all recommendations given by the Ombudsman regarding permits for crypto exchanges to CoFTRA have been followed up. However, CoFTRA is not in a position to agree or disagree with these recommendations.

“We are in a position to carry out the recommendations as much as possible, but we have also conveyed to the Ombudsman several explanations that the Ombudsman accused us of because something did not match what was alleged by the complainant,” Didid said in a press conference in Jakarta, Friday (19/5/2023 ).

It is known that the company that complained to the Ombudsman regarding allegations of maladministration by slowing down crypto exchange licenses was PT Digital Future Exchange (DFX). The Ombudsman has also sent recommendations for corrective action to CoFTRA.

Didid emphasized that the process of applying for a permit for the crypto exchange is still in progress. CoFTRA did not slow down the licensing process at all. Especially in July 2022, the crypto licensing process was indeed stopped because CoFTRA was carrying out regulatory improvements, especially regarding the reliability of crypto company information systems which had to be maintained because it involved public safety.

“Until now, there is IDR 300 trillion worth of crypto asset transactions. I don’t want to mess with something that big. I want to make sure the public is protected,” he said.

Previously, the Ombudsman revealed the maladministration carried out by CoFTRA in the crypto exchange business license case. One of them, namely CoFTRA, is suspected of having protracted delays in the licensing process for crypto commodity futures exchanges for up to two years.

Member of the Ombudsman, Yeka Hendra Fatika, said that he had monitored the follow-up on the implementation of Corrective Actions in the Final Report on Examination Results (LAHP) for Futures Exchange Business Permits (IUBB), which was submitted on March 17, 2023 to CoFTRA as the reported party.

As a result, CoFTRA cannot carry out all of these Corrective Actions, so the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia will continue the process at the level of formulating Recommendations which are final and binding.

“Based on our analysis after conducting monitoring, CoFTRA has not carried out all of the Ombudsman’s Corrective Actions. In particular, it cannot provide certainty regarding the IUBB status requested by the reporter,” said Yeka in Jakarta, Wednesday (17/5/2023).

From this monitoring activity, it was obtained information that CoFTRA carried out some of the corrective actions of the Indonesian Ombudsman, namely the improvement of the IUBB Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as of 17 April 2023.

Furthermore, regarding the corrective action related to the certainty of the status of PT DFX’s IUBB application, CoFTRA cannot provide clarity and/or certainty of the intended status because CoFTRA considers that PT DFX’s IUBB is still in the process stage.

In the next stage, the Indonesian Ombudsman will improve LAHP monitoring into a final and binding Ombudsman Recommendation formulation process. The Ombudsman Recommendations will later be submitted to the President of the Republic of Indonesia and the DPR RI in accordance with the provisions of Law Number 37 of 2008 concerning the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia.