3. Licensing of money lenders

3. Licensing of money lenders

The licensing authorities under the Money Lenders Ordinance (Cap. 163) are the Registrar of Money Lenders (a division of the Registrar of Companies) and the Commissioner of Police. 

Unless an exemption applies, any person who carries on the business of making loans without a money lender’s licence commits an offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of HK$100,000, and imprisonment for 2 years. Moreover, a money lender is not entitled to recover in court the money lent or interest on the loan if it was not licensed at the time of making the loan. The only exception is where the court decides that it would be inequitable (i.e. unfair), taking account of all the circumstances of the case, to disallow the money lender to recover the loan or interest from the borrower.

A borrower may check whether a money lender is licensed on the official website of the Registrar of Companies. Please click here for the list of Money Lenders Licensees.

The Registrar of Money Lenders will impose standard conditions on a money lender’s licence which are applicable to all licensed money lenders. The Registrar may also impose other additional conditions as it sees fit on a case-by-case basis having regard to the facts and circumstances of each case.

A money lender is required to renew its licence on an annual basis.