KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — The government is developing a real-time digital platform to monitor licensed moneylenders and curb excessive charges on borrowers, in a move aimed at improving transparency and consumer protection in the industry, Parliament heard today.
Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Aiman Athirah Sabu said the initiative, now in the final stage of its pilot project design, is aimed at improving transparency and oversight within the licensed moneylending industry.
“The ministry is in the final stage of concluding a pilot project proposal to develop a platform or data repository system for borrowers and licensed moneylenders that can record loan transactions in real time,” she said during the question and answer session.
“This system will be equipped with monitoring and digital payment features aimed at strengthening the regulation of licensed moneylenders,” she added.
Aiman said the platform will also ensure that no additional charges are imposed on members of the public who intend to take loans from these companies.
She was responding to a supplementary question from Batu MP P. Prabakaran, who had asked whether the government planned to build an integrated portal between the ministry, licensed moneylenders and borrowers to automatically calculate interest rates and late payment charges, so that lenders could not arbitrarily set their own fees.
She added that the ministry also intends to include a loan insurance protection scheme in the system to provide coverage for eligible borrowers.
