7 Checks Before Using a Licensed Moneylender in Singapore (August 2026)

The Ministry of Law publishes the complete list of licensed moneylenders as a downloadable document, updated regularly and dated on its face. It carries the business name, business address, licence number, landline and declared website for every licensee. As at 1 August 2026 there were 153 of them.

Match all of it, not just the name. The Registry warns that scammers create fake websites mimicking legitimate lenders, which means a company name alone proves nothing. The address and licence number on the official list are what identify the real business, and a licence number is dated by its year of issue, so it also tells you when the licence was granted or renewed.

Do this before you send documents and before you pay anything. It takes about two minutes and it is the single step that prevents most of what goes wrong in this category. If you cannot find the business on the list, that is the answer.

This is worth stating twice because it is counter-intuitive. Licensed moneylenders may not solicit through SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, social media platforms, video hosting sites, online advertisements or telephone calls. The permitted channels are business and consumer directories, their own websites, and on or inside their approved business premises.

So the message itself is the evidence. A licensed lender breaking that rule risks its licence, which is its entire business, so in practice the sender is an unlicensed lender or a scammer using a licensed lender's name. Either way, engaging is the mistake.

The practical response is to not reply at all, not to click any link, and to block. If you have already sent identity documents or made a payment, report it to the police on 1800-255-0000, which is the number the Registry itself points people to.

The Registry of Moneylenders specifically warns about scammers requesting GST or processing fees before releasing a loan, and its wording on that is blunt: that is a scam.

Understand how the legitimate version works, because it is different in a way that matters. A licensed moneylender may charge an administrative fee capped at 10 percent of the principal, and that fee is deducted from the amount disbursed rather than collected from you in advance. You never need to send money in order to receive money.

This is the mechanism behind most advance-fee loan scams, and it is effective because the request sounds procedural. A fee for GST, for insurance, for a credit check, for currency conversion or for unlocking a disbursement are all versions of the same thing. There is no legitimate reason to transfer funds to a lender before a loan exists.

The Moneylenders Rules cap what can be charged on a loan to an individual, and the caps are absolute rather than negotiable.

That last line is the one to hold on to. Whatever happens, the total permitted borrowing costs on a loan cannot exceed the principal, so a S$3,000 loan can never legally accumulate more than S$3,000 in charges. The 4 percent monthly interest cap applies to every borrower regardless of income, and to both secured and unsecured loans.

If a contract in front of you implies more than that, it is not a licensed moneylender's contract. Take a photograph of it and walk out.

A licensed moneylender operates from an approved business premises, which is on the official list, and the loan contract is signed there. That physical step is a protection rather than an inconvenience: it means there is an address, a landline and a regulated place of business behind the transaction.

Before signing, make sure you can state the principal, the total you will repay, the instalment amount, the number of instalments and every fee. If any of those is unclear, the contract is not ready to sign. You are entitled to a copy of what you signed, and you should leave with one.

Be wary of anything conducted entirely remotely with no verifiable premises, and of pressure to sign quickly. A legitimate lender has no reason to rush you, because its business model does not depend on you failing to read.

The honest step most guides on this subject leave out. Interest capped at 4 percent a month is still roughly 48 percent a year before fees, which is expensive money by any standard, and it is designed for short-term borrowing rather than for carrying a shortfall indefinitely.

Before taking a loan, work out the total repayment rather than the monthly instalment, and be specific about what changes so that you can repay it. A short-term gap with a known end, a bill before a confirmed payment arrives, is a different situation from a monthly shortfall that a loan will make larger next month.

If the underlying problem is ongoing debt rather than a timing gap, Credit Counselling Singapore is a non-profit that helps people restructure and manage debt, and speaking to them costs nothing. Using it is not an admission of anything, and it is a considerably better first call than a second loan.

Here is the finding that shaped this whole page. Reading the official register of 153 licensed moneylenders as at 1 August 2026, about a fifth of them have business names beginning with a digit or the letter A, and there is a company registered as Best Licensed Moneylender Pte Ltd.

Those names are not accidents. They exist to appear first in alphabetical listings and to match what people type into a search box. Which means any list ordering moneylenders by quality is telling you about naming strategy and marketing spend, not about how you will be treated, and that includes lists that look independent.

What you can actually verify is narrow and worth relying on: whether the business appears on the official register, whether its address and licence number match, whether every charge sits inside the legal caps, and whether the loan contract is clear enough that you can state what you will repay in total. Those checks are the whole of the useful information available to a borrower. Anything beyond them is presentation.

Search the business on the list of licensed moneylenders published by the Registry of Moneylenders at the Ministry of Law. The list is a dated document showing every licensee with its business name, business address, licence number, landline and declared website, and it is updated regularly. As at 1 August 2026 it contained 153 licensed moneylenders.

Check the address as well as the name. The Registry warns that scammers build fake websites mimicking genuine licensed lenders, so a matching company name on a website proves nothing on its own. The address and licence number on the official document are the identity check that actually holds.

Do the check before you send identity documents and before any payment. If the business is not on the list, or the address does not match, stop there. Suspicious approaches can be reported to the police on 1800-255-0000.

Four percent per month. That cap applies to all borrowers regardless of income, and to both secured and unsecured loans. Late interest is also capped at 4 percent a month, and it may only be charged on the amount that is actually overdue rather than on the whole outstanding loan.

The other permitted charges are an administrative fee of up to 10 percent of the principal, deducted from the disbursed amount rather than paid in advance, and a late fee of up to S$60 a month. Beyond those, nothing else is permitted.

And there is an overall ceiling that matters more than any individual cap: the sum of all permitted borrowing costs on a loan cannot exceed 100 percent of the principal. So the charges on a S$5,000 loan can never legally exceed S$5,000, no matter how long it runs. If the numbers in front of you imply otherwise, you are not dealing with a licensed moneylender.

No. Licensed moneylenders are prohibited from soliciting members of the public through SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, social media platforms, video hosting sites, online advertisements or phone calls. The only permitted advertising channels are business and consumer directories, the lender's own website, and on or within its approved business premises.

That makes an unsolicited message self-identifying. Whoever sent it is either an unlicensed lender operating outside the law, or a scammer using the name of a real licensed business. Both are worth avoiding and neither becomes safe because the message looks professional or quotes a real licence number, since licence numbers are published and easily copied.

Do not reply, do not click, and do not send documents. If you have already engaged, particularly if you have transferred any money or shared identity documents, report it to the police on 1800-255-0000. If you genuinely need to borrow, start from the official register instead and go to the business premises.

There is no best licensed moneylender, and I am not going to pretend otherwise on a page that would rank well for saying so. The register itself makes the argument: 153 licensees, a fifth of them named to sort first alphabetically, and one of them literally registered as Best Licensed Moneylender Pte Ltd. A ranking in this category measures naming and marketing, not treatment.

What is worth doing is the checking. Look the business up on the Ministry of Law register and match the address and licence number, not just the name. Treat any unsolicited message as proof that the sender is operating illegally. Never pay anything before a loan is disbursed. Hold every charge against the caps: 4 percent monthly interest, 4 percent late interest, 10 percent administrative fee, S$60 late fee, and total costs that cannot exceed the principal.

And ask the question underneath all of it. Money at 4 percent a month is roughly 48 percent a year before fees, which is a tool for a short gap with a known end and a poor answer to an ongoing shortfall. If it is the second, Credit Counselling Singapore is free and is the better call.

One note on why this page looks different from the rest of this series. I write recommendation guides for a living and this is a category where a ranking would do more harm than good, so it is a checklist instead. If you run a legitimate licensed business in a field where trust is the entire product, the fix for being confused with the bad actors is a website that makes verification easy: your licence number, your registered address and your landline, stated plainly. That happens to be my day job. Take a look at my web design services in Singapore, or get a quote.