Multi-pronged strategy needed to fight loan sharks The Saigon Times Daily Data given at a press briefing last Thursday paints a worrying picture about HCMC’s social safety when it was revealed that the municipal police department has come up with a list of 600 unlicensed moneylenders, often referred to as loan sharks, and are mulling a strategy to cope with them. Just imagine each of the loan sharks has scores of borrowers, then tens of thousands of people in the city have fallen victim to those rings that make huge, illegal gains by slapping sky-high interest rates on loans, in many cases as high as hundreds of percent a year. There have been stories of borrowers having to transfer their houses or other properties to such lenders after taking out small loans that multiplied after certain periods; there have been cases of insolvent borrowers being arrested or physically harmed by thugs employed by illegal lenders; and there have been numerous cases of harassment by such loans sharks under various forms, from splashing paint and other dirty substances onto the borrower’s house to death threats. Little has been done to safeguard the victims. In HCMC – though such rings are not limited to HCMC alone – illegal operations by loan sharks are diverse in form. One can see leaflets handed out on the street, and small ads posted on the internet or electricity poles or any street corner. Loan sharks are also disguised under legal entities like pawn shops or debt… [Read full story]
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