Indonesia has launched a crackdown on peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders through a new regulation and capital requirements, in a move that industry sources say should help clean up a booming online lending sector beset by consumer complaints, Reuters reported. The rules, announced this month by Indonesia’s financial services authorities (OJK), set a minimum capital requirement for lenders at a 25 billion rupiah ($1.67 million), up from 1 billion rupiah previously, with an additional demand to maintain at least 12.5 billion rupiah of equity at all times. The regulation took effect on July 4.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is seeking new investors to aid its new business plan after the airline gained creditors' support to restructure its Rp 142 trillion (US$9 billion) of liabilities, the Jakarta Post reported. The State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry has been in talks with several foreign airline companies and financial investors to invest in Garuda, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, Deputy SOEs Minister said on Tuesday.

State-controlled carrier Garuda Indonesia has asked a Jakarta court to extend for the third time its deadline to complete its debt-restructuring process, its CEO said, as the verification of claims is still unfinished, Reuters reported. Garuda proposed a 30-day extension time to verify claims and finalise negotiation with the creditors, CEO Irfan Setiaputra said during a creditors meeting at the Central Jakarta Commercial Court on Tuesday.

Indonesia widened the scope of its export ban on raw materials for cooking oil to include crude and refined palm oil, its chief economic minister said on Wednesday, leaving markets in shock over the latest policy reversal, Reuters reported. The announcement flipped the minister's statement a day earlier, in which he had said the export ban would only cover refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein. The change was "in line with the president's decision and after taking into account the feedback and views from the people," Airlangga Hartarto said in a short statement.

Indonesia’s pile of pandemic-related corporate debt is offering some investors the chance to cherry-pick cheap assets before a government forbearance program runs out next year, Bloomberg News reported. The two-year-old government plan gives creditors and debtors time to resolve billions of dollars worth of loans to companies including airline PT Garuda Indonesia to prevent wholesale bankruptcies from the Covid-induced slump.

Indonesia’s central bank may start next year to sell the government bonds it bought as part of a $58 billion debt monetization that supported stimulus spending during the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. “We will discuss the possibilities later but based on the information that we have now, it is likely that we will roll back our government bond holding starting next year,” Governor Perry Warjiyo said in a Saturday interview.

Creditors of struggling airline PT Garuda Indonesia have submitted about 198 trillion rupiah ($13.8 billion) in claims as part of a debt restructuring, according to court-appointed administrators, Bloomberg News reported. The administrators for the flag carrier received claims from more than 470 creditors by the end of a Jan. 5 deadline, Martin Patrick Nagel and Jandri Siadari, members of the team of administrators, wrote in replies to questions from Bloomberg. They will now verify the provisional claims and decide on Jan.

For Balinese souvenir shop owner I Kadek Rai Nama Rupat, the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic have been a fight for survival. The pandemic has prevented the foreign tourists that usually throng businesses like his on the Indonesian resort island from coming and rising food prices have compounded the economic pain, Reuters reported. But a local non-profit group is offering help by exchanging rice for plastic trash that is then sold to a recycling company.

A debt restructuring just getting underway at flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia is forcing creditors to weigh short-term losses against the potential for gains further down the line in one of the fastest growing aviation markets in Asia, Bloomberg News reported. The airline is entering a court-supervised debt restructuring process after a Jakarta court on Thursday accepted a debt petition filed against it. Garuda and its creditors have 45 days to complete negotiations, which can be extended to 270 days.