What is the Singapore Registry of Moneylenders?
Under the Moneylenders Act 2008, every person or business carrying on the business of moneylending in Singapore is required to hold a current licence issued by the Registrar of Moneylenders — an office within the Ministry of Law (MinLaw). The Registry of Moneylenders (ROM) is the MinLaw division that administers those licences and maintains the public register of licensed moneylenders. Singapore's regime is statutorily and administratively distinct from Malaysia's: Malaysia licenses under the Moneylenders Act 1951 through the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT), Singapore licenses under the Moneylenders Act 2008 through MinLaw ROM. A moneylender is licensed in one country or the other, never both under a single licence.
How do I check the licensed moneylender list online?
The authoritative online lookup is MinLaw's own website (mlaw.gov.sg), under the Registry of Moneylenders section. The public register lists every entity currently holding a moneylender's licence. The verification steps are: (1) note the moneylender's licence details, licensed entity name and licensed business address exactly as presented to you; (2) look those details up against the ROM public register on mlaw.gov.sg; (3) confirm the entity name and address on the register match what the lender is presenting; a mismatch — including trading under a name or from an address not on the licence — is not a minor discrepancy, it is the primary red flag a licensed moneylender would not exhibit.
Red flags of an unlicensed moneylender in Singapore
Unlicensed moneylenders in Singapore — commonly reported to Police via the anti-unlicensed-moneylending channels — imitate the surface signals of licensed operators. Common patterns to check against the ROM register: (a) the operator solicits loans by unsolicited SMS, WhatsApp or messaging-app text — licensed moneylenders in Singapore are prohibited from soliciting business by those channels; (b) the operator does not present a licence, or presents details that do not resolve on the MinLaw ROM public register; (c) the trading name or business address the operator uses is different from the licensed entity name or licensed business address on the register; (d) the operator will not conduct the loan transaction in person at a licensed place of business. The Singapore Police Force and MinLaw publish separate public guidance on identifying and reporting unlicensed moneylending activity.
Malaysia vs Singapore — the two regimes are not interchangeable
The Malaysian KPKT register (Moneylenders Act 1951) and the Singapore ROM register (Moneylenders Act 2008) are two separate documents administered by two separate authorities under two separate statutes. A lender licensed by KPKT in Malaysia is not thereby licensed to operate in Singapore, and vice versa. Cross-border loan-service advertising that implies otherwise is a compliance issue on both sides. Our Malaysian licensed money lender list guide covers the KPKT side in detail; this page covers Singapore.
For licensed Singapore moneylenders reading this
Marketing licensed moneylending services in Singapore sits under the MinLaw ROM rules on solicitation, advertising media and permitted content — a distinct framework from Malaysia's Registrar-of-Moneylenders advertisement-permit regime under section 11(1) of the Moneylenders Act 1951. If your firm advertises loan services on Google in Singapore, Google's Financial Services Verification (FSV) programme additionally requires the underlying MinLaw licence to be named in the verification step, independent of the licence itself. Our Singapore practice handles the cross-border reporting and PDPA-compliant lead handling that Singapore-facing campaigns need.