OJK asks Indonesian banks to block about 39,923 gambling-linked accounts and apply enhanced due diligence

Implications for lenders

With OJK asking banks to block about 39,923 gambling-linked accounts and close accounts matching the same NIK, lenders that disburse to bank accounts may face more failed disbursements and repayment channels that close without notice. Onboarding checks may need to cover whether an applicant's accounts have been blocked, and collections teams may need alternative repayment channels for affected borrowers.

Implications

Facts

At the press conference on the Financial Services Authority (OJK) board meeting on 5 November 2026, Dian Ediana Rae, OJK's chief executive for banking supervision, said OJK had asked banks to block about 39,923 accounts linked to online gambling, based on data from the Ministry of Communication and Digital, up from 38,796 in August 2026. ¹ Banks are asked to close accounts that match the national identity number (NIK) of the flagged account holders and to apply enhanced due diligence (EDD). Fortune IDN reported that OJK is widening the tracing of customers' NIKs across banks.

The same briefing cited the scale of online gambling flows: turnover in 2025 was IDR 286.84 trn across 422.1 million transactions, about 20% lower than IDR 359.81 trn in 2024. ² Deposits into online gambling through bank accounts, e-wallets and QRIS were IDR 36.01 trn, down from IDR 51.3 trn in 2024, made by 12.3 million people. ³

OJK also gave figures for the Indonesia Anti-Scam Centre (IASC), which began operating on 22 November 2024. Up to 28 October 2026 it had received 737,686 scam reports covering 1,471,112 reported accounts, and had blocked 743,589 accounts. ⁴ Victims' funds blocked and saved totalled IDR 967.5 bn, and IDR 208.9 bn had been returned to victims from scammers' accounts at 24 banks. ⁵

Analysis

Time series: the count of gambling-linked accounts OJK has asked banks to block keeps rising, from 38,796 in August to about 39,923, even though the money flowing into online gambling fell in 2025 (IDR 36.01 trn in deposits, down from IDR 51.3 trn in 2024). The supervisory response is moving from blocking single accounts to the customer level: matching by NIK and applying EDD means one flagged account can affect a customer's other relationships at the same or other banks.

Recovery remains small relative to what is blocked. Funds returned to scam victims, IDR 208.9 bn, are a fraction of the IDR 967.5 bn blocked through IASC. Cross-country, with different measures: in Malaysia, the central bank's governor said the financial sector prevented about RM1.9 bn of attempted fraudulent transactions in the first half of 2026, vs RM1.2 bn in the whole of 2025, and PayNet has flagged more than 1,600 suspicious accounts since October 2025. Both markets are building shared account-level intelligence, but Indonesia's figures are cumulative since late 2024 and Malaysia's cover prevented transactions, so the amounts are not directly comparable.

Counterpoints and uncertainties

The as-of date of the latest count differs between reports: Kontan dates it to September 2026, while Fortune IDN describes it as the count up to early November. OJK's statement does not say how many of the requested accounts banks have actually closed, nor how NIK-based closures are reviewed when a customer disputes the link. Lower gambling deposits in 2025 may reflect a shift to channels outside the banking system rather than less gambling.