Jakarta – The country's antimoney laundering watchdog, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), says it has noticed a significant jump in the number of suspicious transactions over the course of the year.
Most of the reports involved identity fraud for the purpose of opening bank accounts, PPATK director Yunus Husein said Tuesday. However, few of the cases had been found to be actually connected with money laundering.
"There has been a 100 percent increase (in the number of suspicious transaction reports) this month alone, giving us an average of eight to nine reports each day," Yunus told a press conference after opening an international workshop on money laundering in Jakarta.
As of the end of October, the PPATK had received 6,530 reports of suspicious transactions from 160 banks and non-bank financial institutions. This was more than triple last year's overall figure of 2,005 reports.
However, Yunus said that of the more than 400 cases the agency had reported to the authorities since 2003, only seven convictions had thus far resulted under the antimoney laundering legislation. "The rest were tried under the corruption legislation or other laws," he said.
Concern, however, remains over the rising trend of suspicious transaction reports involving identity fraud.
Accordingly, Yunus said he would ask the government to introduce a single identity number scheme as soon as possible, like that applied in Malaysia, Singapore and the US.
"If not, then Indonesia will always be prone to document forgery, and this will make it more difficult for us, the banks, and the authorities to identify suspicious transactions," he said. This was particularly the case given that money laundering rackets were becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Tuesday's workshop is being held to highlight the latest methods criminals are using to launder money, Arun Kendall from the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) said.
Established in 1997, the APG seeks to set guidelines against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Indonesia and Australia currently share the group's chairmanship.
Indonesia was removed in February last year from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) list of countries deemed to be non-cooperative in combating money laundering crimes, with the Paris-based global antimoney laundering watchdog noting various improvements, including the passing of the Antimoney Laundering Law and the setting up of the PPATK.
The FATF further removed Indonesia from its monitoring list earlier this year.