Study needed on why more young men go bankrupt, says Azalina

KUALA LUMPUR: A study should be conducted to find out why more young men are going bankrupt compared to young women, says Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (pic).

"Based on statistics between 2018 and 2022, more men were debtors than women. I hope the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry takes note of this,” she said.

"In that time, a total of 35,856 men were made bankrupts compared to 13,254 women," added Azalina in reply to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Feb 14).

Azalina, the Minister in charge of Law and Institutional Reforms, said earlier that 759 people aged 25 to 34 were declared bankrupt last year compared to 1,741 in 2020.

She said most of the bankruptcy was due to failure to settle personal loans, credit card debt and hire-purchase payments.

On a separate issue, Azalina said the Insolvency Department was looking at a more humanitarian approach in allowing automatic discharge of individuals who are declared bankrupt.

She said automatic discharge from bankruptcy could be given to those above 70, with health problems, or the physically challenged.

She noted that between 2018 and 2022, a total of 87,427 people were discharged as bankrupts.

Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Bin Hassan (PN-Kota Baru) had asked if there are plans to introduce automatic discharge of bankrupts.

He added that the current procedure was tedious and time-consuming, resulting in some debtors ending up as perpetual bankrupts.

Takiyuddin noted that as of November 2020, there were 270,300 bankrupts.

He estimated that about 1,000 people are being declared bankrupt each month, claiming that this was caused by the recent hike in overnight policy rates by Bank Negara.