The Securities and Exchange Commission suspended 20 more lending companies for failing to secure a secondary license, or a certificate of authority, as required by the Lending Company Regulation Act of 2007.
The SEC said it suspended the certificates of registration of the 20 lending companies after withholding the same on 84 lending firms last month as part of a crackdown against “5-6,” or moneylenders that charge extremely high interest on loans.
The 20 suspended lending companies are Angeles Lending Investors Inc., Champion Lending Corp., Charton Lending Corp., CLIA Lending Investors Inc., Eminence Lending Investor Inc., ExpressAdvance Inc., Green Hope Credit Inc., Kiangan Credit Resources & Lending Inc., Lending Markets of Cebu Corp., LKT Lending Co., Metro Asia Pacific Credit Corp., Metro Sunrise Lending Investor Inc., Multiplier Lending Corp., Peso & Cents Credit Resources Inc., Prisunic Lending Corp., Prosperity Link Inc., PS Lending Investors Inc., RSN Punjab Trading & Lending Corp. and ST Benefit Lending Investors Co Inc.
The SEC earlier sent out over 300 show cause letters to registered companies engaged in lending which have not secured a certificate of authority.
The show cause letters required the companies to explain why their primary licenses should not be suspended in view of the failure to secure a certificate of authority.
The SEC said the erring lending companies would be suspended for 60 days. If they still do not respond within the suspension period, proceedings for revocation of their certificates of registration will immediately follow.
Aside from suspension, an erring lending company can also be fined with not less than P10,000, or imprisonment of not less than six months but not more than 10 years or both.