Pawnbrokers expecting busy days after loan moratorium ends

All that glitters: A worker at a pawn shop examining a piece of jewellery deposited by a customer in Taman Daya.

JOHOR BARU: Pawnbrokers expect an increase in the number of people wanting to pawn their belongings upon the expiry of the loan moratorium in September.

Tan Wang Chang, who runs a pawn shop here, said that he had observed a rising number of customers sending in their belongings over the past two weeks.

“Looking at the trend, we expect this to go up in the months to come, especially after the moratorium expires in September, ” he said.

When pawnshops were allowed to reopen during the conditional movement control order (MCO), he said that many people were seen lining up at such shops.

“However, they were not there to pawn their belongings. Instead, they wanted to redeem their valuables or to renew their tickets by paying the monthly interest of the items they pawned as they were worried about losing their belongings since they had not been able to go to the pawn shops for over a month due to the MCO, ” he said.

Another pawnshop operator, who only wanted to be known as Lim, said that about 45% of people who visited his shop since earlier this month were there to pawn their belongings.

“When we reopened, only about 20% of patrons were here to pawn their items. A majority of them came to either redeem or renew their tickets.

“However, the number of people pawning their items grew over the past few weeks, ” he said, adding that the increase was gradual.

Johor Pawnbrokers Association chairman Ho Kuek Kuwang said that he expects more people to pawn their belongings by the end of September or early October.

“There is a slight rise in the number of people pawning their items now but it is not significant. It was about the same as before the MCO.

“We expect to only see a significant increase after the loan moratorium ends, as many would then have to find ways to pay their loans, ” he said.

The six-month loan moratorium, which ends on Sept 30, refers to the period in which a borrower is not obligated to make monthly repayments to the banks.