Marcell Sihombing, Nando Narendra

Press Conference held by OJK. Photo by: NNP
Law No. 40 of 2014 on Insurance (the Insurance Law) mandates for the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to issue a number of OJK Regulations which will set out the basic guidelines for parties involved in the insurance sector. Firdaus Djaelani, Chief Executive of the Non-Bank Financial Industry (IKNB) Supervisory Body at the OJK is optimistic that his institution’s so-called “pending task,” namely the issuance of these regulations, will have been completed by April 2016.
“We will ensure that what is mandated by Law No. 40 of 2014 will be completed within the two-and-a-half-year deadline. In fact, it should be finished early this year,” asserted Mr. Djaelani in Jakarta on Monday, 1 February 2016.
Mr. Djaelani further revealed that the Insurance Law originally mandated for the OJK to formulate some 41 implementing regulations. However, in the wake of a number of studies and analysis, the OJK managed to narrow the figure down to 16 implementing regulations. Out of this total of 16 regulations, the OJK managed to produce 12 OJK Regulations in 2015, while the remaining four are set for completion this year.
The first of the remaining four regulations, continued Mr. Djaelani, focuses on the so-called fit-and-proper test. The second regulation concerns procedures for imposing administrative sanctions relating to the blocking of access to insurance, sharia insurance, reinsurance, and sharia reinsurance companies. The third regulation currently being worked on will eventually regulate the management of insurance companies, while the fourth regulation concerns the reporting mechanism for insurance and reinsurance companies.
“As of now, some of the remaining regulations are still at the rule-making stage, which includes input from various industrial stakeholders, while other regulations have already been forwarded to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and are awaiting their official numbers [to be designated],” asserted Mr. Djaelani.
Also commenting on this issue, Edi Setiadi, the OJK’s Deputy Commissioner of the IKNB Supervisory Body, added that his institution was currently deliberating the remaining four OJK Regulations. “As regards the Insurance Law, four regulations are still at the deliberation stage. Meanwhile, the 12 OJK Regulations that were completed in 2015 are now awaiting legal review by the OJK and the designation of official numbers by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights,” Mr. Setiadi stated.
Mr. Setiadi further revealed that of the 12 OJK Regulations that were finalized last year, only four had already been officially enacted to date, while the remaining eight were still awaiting the designation of official numbers by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. Meanwhile, the other four remaining OJK Regulations, which are being targeted by the OJK for completion in 2016, still need to incorporate input from the relevant stakeholders through various discussions.
“We will be way ahead of schedule if we can finalize things before the end of the first semester of this year,” asserted Mr. Setiadi.
Mr. Setiadi further revealed to hukumonline that the OJK would be formulating the implementing regulations to the relevant laws in accordance with three principles. These three principles comprise of the contributions made by companies to the economy, issues relating to stability, and the contributions made by companies as regards the provision of easy access to the general public.
It will be necessary for the OJK to formulate a number of new implementing regulations in order to uphold the above three principles. As a result, the current 16 Insurance Law implementing regulations are not set in stone and can be extended should any other aspects of the insurance sector require an implementing regulatory framework.
“As we’ve found in the past, new issues can sometimes crop up along the way. For example, the venture-capital sector was not initially regulated, but later was. Thus our focus is not on any [pre-determined] amount of regulations, but on these three guiding principles. We have designated this year as so-called industry-servicing year, and this means that the OJK is aiming to provide its very best service to industry, including the simplifying of licensing processes, and so forth. Put simply, this year promises to be quite a busy one,” concluded Mr. Setiadi.
(rfs/sp)