13. Restriction on moneylenders’ advertisements
Feedback & supportNo person shall knowingly send or deliver or cause to be sent or delivered, to any person, except in response to his written request any circular or other document advertising the name, address or telephone number of a moneylender or containing an invitation —
moneylender
“moneylender” includes every person whose business is that of moneylending or who carries on or advertises or announces himself or holds himself out in any way as carrying on that business whether or not that person also possesses or earns property or money derived from sources other than the lending of money and whether or not that person carries on the business as a principal or as an agent but does not include —(a)any body corporate, incorporated or empowered by a special Act of Parliament or by any other Act to lend money in accordance with that Act;(b)any society registered under the Cooperative Societies Act;(c)any person bona fide carrying on the business of banking or insurance or bona fide carrying on any business not having for its primary object the lending of money in the course of which and for the purposes whereof he lends money;(d)any pawnbroker licensed under the provisions of any written law in force in Singapore relating to the licensing of pawnbrokers; and(e)any finance company licensed under the Finance Companies Act.
to borrow money from a moneylender;
to enter into any transaction involving the borrowing of money from a moneylender; or
to apply to any place with a view to obtaining information or advice as to borrowing any money from a moneylender.
Subject to this section, no person shall publish, or cause to be published, in any newspaper or other printed paper issued periodically for public circulation or by means of any poster or placard, an advertisement advertising any such particulars or containing any such invitation as aforesaid:Provided that an advertisement in conformity with the requirements of this Act relating to the use of names on moneylenders’ documents may be published by or on behalf of a moneylender in any newspaper or in any such paper as aforesaid or by means of a poster or placard exhibited at any authorised address of the moneylender if it contains no addition to the particulars necessary to comply with those requirements except any of the following particulars:
any authorised address at which he carries on business as a moneylender and the telegraphic address and telephone number thereof;
any address at which he formerly carried on business;
a statement that he lends money with or without security and of the highest and lowest sums that he is prepared to lend; or
a statement of the date on which the business carried on by him was first established.
No moneylender or any person on his behalf shall employ any agent or canvasser for the purpose of inviting any person to borrow money or to enter into any transaction involving the borrowing of money from a moneylender and no person shall act as such agent or canvasser or demand or receive, directly or indirectly, any sum or other valuable consideration by way of commission or otherwise for introducing or undertaking to introduce to a moneylender any person desiring to borrow money.
Where any document issued or published by or on behalf of a moneylender purports to indicate the terms of interest upon which he is willing to make loans or any particular loan, the document shall either express the interest proposed in terms of a rate per cent per annum or per month.
Any person acting in contravention of any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall in respect of each offence be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.