Oral Answer by Senior Minister of State for Law, Indranee Rajah, to Parliamentary Question on Licensed Moneylending

05 AUG 2014

5 Aug 2014 Posted in Parliamentary speeches and responses

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio GRC)

Question:

To ask the Minister for Law in the past five years (a) how many Singaporeans borrow from licensed moneylenders annually; (b) what is the average loan amount for each borrower; and (c) what is the average age of the borrowers.

Oral Answer:

  1. Madam Speaker, we have data on the number of borrowers over the past two years. In 2012, 33,071 borrowers took loans from licensed moneylenders. This number was 34,370 in 2013. The Registry of Moneylenders does not maintain data on the nationality or age profile of the borrowers.

  2. The total amounts borrowed in 2012 and 2013 were $346 million and $478 million respectively. The total number of loans taken in 2012 and 2013 was about 264,000 and 331,000 respectively. These include a small number of loans taken by companies. Thus, the average loan amount per loan taken in 2012 was about $1,300, and in 2013 it was about $1,400.

  3. Computing the average loan amount per borrower based on the data that we have may not adequately reflect a borrower’s overall indebtedness to moneylenders. Because for instance, some borrowers may have refinanced loans or taken new loans from different moneylenders to repay earlier loans during the course of the year.

Last updated on 06 Aug 2014