Regulation Of Moneylending In Mauritius

Moneylending is a crucial credit device in the world of financial services which plays a significant role in supporting economic growth and development. However, since at the outset, there were exploitative tendencies of lenders imposing stringent and oppressive terms on desperate borrowers, it was essential to establish an effective regulatory framework to sufficiently protect the borrowers from abuses.

MONEYLENDING LAWS

Laws regulating the moneylending practices have existed since a long time ago. Originally, the Moneylenders Act 1959 (Moneylenders Act) was enacted to regulate the moneylending activity in Mauritius. The Moneylenders Act was largely modelled after the English Moneylenders Act of 1927 and it governed the business of moneylending by organisations not specifically licensed as banks in Mauritius under the Banking Act 2004 (Banking Act). The object of the law was well thought. In the old English case of Litchfield v Dreyfus [1906] 1 KB 584, Farwell