Jakarta. Mahendra Siregar, who has been helming the Financial Services Authority or OJK for over 3 years, officially stepped down on Friday following market turmoil.

Mahendra was not alone. Inarno Djajadi — the OJK’s chief executive for capital market, financial derivative, and carbon exchange supervision — has also quit. The same goes for I. B. Aditya  Jayaantara, the deputy commissioner in charge of supervising issuers and securities transactions.

“Mahendra has said that the resignation is a form of moral responsibility to support the necessary recovery steps,” an OJK press statement reads.

The authority said that the mass resignation would not affect its operations of making sure that the national financial services sector remains stable. In the meantime, OJK said that their positions would be “carried out in accordance with the applicable laws”.

“OJK remains committed to maintaining the trust of both the people and financial services industry players by implementing good governance principles, transparency, and accountability in all institutional processes.”

Mahendra was the former deputy foreign minister before getting picked to lead OJK in July 2022. On Friday morning, Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) chief executive Iman Rachman resigned after two consecutive days of steep market losses. The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) had plunged after index provider MSCI worried about trading transparency. Jakarta has until May to make improvements. MSCI’s report also puts Indonesia’s “emerging market” status under threat as it warns of a possible downgrade to a “frontier market”. 

A day earlier, Mahendra had just announced to the press that OJK would work from the IDX to make sure that “the reforms of the capital market are going quickly and effectively”.