Pawnbrokers Act 2015

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Pawnbrokers Act 2015
Parliament of Singapore
Long title An Act to repeal and re-enact the Pawnbrokers Act (Chapter 222 of the 1994 Revised Edition) and to make consequential amendments to certain other written laws, essentially an Act relating to pawnbrokers.
Enacted by	Parliament of Singapore
Enacted	19 January 2015
Assented to	16 February 2015
Commenced	1 April 2015
Repeals
Pawnbrokers Act 1994
Status: In force

The Pawnbrokers Act 2015 is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that relates to pawnbrokers. The 2015 Act repeals and re-enacts the Pawnbrokers Act (Chapter 222 of the 1994 Revised Edition) and also makes consequential amendments to certain other written laws.

Under the old Pawnbrokers Act of 1994, unredeemed pawned items would be put up for auction by pawnbrokers. Should the auction sale price be higher than the item's valuation, the excess went to the person that pawned the item. The new Pawnbrokers Act repeals the 1994 edition, requiring pawnbrokers to maintain a minimum paid-up capital of S$2 million for each first branch, and S$1 million for each subsequent branch. A higher security deposit is required with every branch,^[1] up from S$20,000.^[2]

Other steps expected include prevention of money laundering such as conducting stricter checks on their customers and reporting suspicious transactions to the police. This comes after a two-year national risk assessment by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore), Ministry of Finance (Singapore) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).^[3]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2016)

• Indranee Rajah

• Pawnbrokers Act 2015