What an MLCB report is
Your MLCB report is the record of every loan you hold or have held with a licensed moneylender in Singapore. MLCB stands for the Moneylenders Credit Bureau, and it exists for one reason: so that a licensed lender can see your position across the whole industry before deciding what to offer you.
It is not the same thing as your credit bureau file. Your bank loans, credit cards and card repayment history sit with Credit Bureau Singapore. Your licensed moneylender loans sit with the MLCB. Two records, two different institutions, and a lender in one industry cannot see the whole of the other.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. People are often surprised to find that a clean bank record does not automatically make a moneylender application straightforward, and that a difficult patch years ago with a bank does not necessarily follow them here. What follows them here is what is in the MLCB.
What your report contains
The report is short. It is a list, not an assessment, and it carries no score or grade.
| What appears | What it means |
| Loans currently outstanding | Every live loan with a licensed moneylender, and with which company |
| Loan amounts | The principal of each loan |
| Repayment status | Whether repayments are up to date, late, or in default |
| Loans fully repaid | Closed loans stay on the record for a set period |
| Number of lenders | How many licensed moneylenders you currently borrow from |
There is no rating attached to any of it. Nobody assigns you a number between 300 and 900. A lender reads the list and forms a judgement, which is a different process from a machine returning a score.
What the report does not contain
It holds nothing about your bank loans, your credit cards, your income, your employment, or anything you have borrowed from family. It also holds nothing about unlicensed lenders, because unlicensed lenders do not report to anything.
How to request your own copy
You can request your own report directly. You do not need a lender to do it for you, and you do not need a reason.
- Go to the Moneylenders Credit Bureau website and open the self-enquiry section.
- Verify your identity with Singpass.
- Pay the self-enquiry fee of S$0.50 (inclusive of GST) .
- Download the report, which is usually available one business day of your request. .
Do this before you apply anywhere, not after. Walking into an application already knowing what the lender is about to see changes the conversation completely, and it is the single cheapest piece of preparation available to you.
How a lender reads it
A licensed moneylender is looking at three things, in roughly this order.
How many lenders you are already with. One live loan reads very differently from four. Borrowing from several licensed moneylenders at once is the pattern most likely to make a lender pause, because it usually means earlier loans did not solve the problem they were taken out for.
Whether repayments have been made on time. Consistency matters more than size. A modest loan repaid on schedule for a year does more for you than a large loan repaid erratically.
Your total exposure against the statutory limits. There is a legal ceiling on what you can borrow from licensed moneylenders in total, and it is tied to your annual income. The current limits are: for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents, the maximum amount is $3,000 for annual income below $10,000, $3,000 for annual income of $10,000 to below $20,000, and 6× monthly income for annual income of $20,000 or more. For foreigners residing in Singapore, the maximum is $500 for annual income below $10,000, $3,000 for annual income of $10,000 to below $20,000, and 6× monthly income for annual income of $20,000 or more.. A lender cannot lend past that line no matter how much they might want to.
What the report does not say about you
This is the part worth holding onto. The MLCB records that a loan existed. It records nothing about why.
It cannot tell a lender that the loan was for a parent’s hospital bill, or a work van that broke down in a month when a contract had not yet been paid, or a deposit on a flat that had to be found in eleven days. Those are the reasons most loans actually exist, and none of them appear anywhere on the record.
So if your report is not what you would like it to be, the useful response is not embarrassment. It is context. Bring it to the conversation, because the record on its own is a list of numbers and the person reading it knows that.
If something on your report is wrong
Errors do happen, usually where a repaid loan has not been closed off properly or a loan appears that you do not recognise.
- Note the exact entry, the lender’s name and the date shown.
- Contact the licensed moneylender named on the entry first. They are the party that submitted the record, and they are the party that can correct it.
- If the lender does not resolve it, raise it with the MLCB directly with your evidence attached.
- Keep a copy of every message. A corrected record takes time to flow through, and you may need to show an application in progress that a correction is under way.
A loan on your report that you never took is a different matter and needs reporting immediately, because it may mean your identity documents have been used by somebody else.
Common questions
Does checking my own MLCB report affect my chances of borrowing?
No. A self-enquiry is not a loan application and it is not visible to lenders as one.
How long do repaid loans stay on the record?
Closed loans remain for 3 years from the date the loan is fully repaid. They do not vanish the day you make the final payment, and that is normal.
Can I borrow if my report shows a late repayment?
Often yes. A late repayment is information, not a disqualification. What a lender weighs is the pattern, how recent it is, and whether it has since been settled.
Is the MLCB the same as CBS?
No. Credit Bureau Singapore covers banks and financial institutions. The MLCB covers licensed moneylenders. They do not share records.
Knowing what is on your report is the first half of understanding what you can borrow. The second half is the eligibility rules themselves, which are set out in full on our eligibility page .
This article is general information about how the Moneylenders Credit Bureau works. It is not financial advice and it does not assess your individual circumstances. JD Credit Pte Ltd is a licensed moneylender in Singapore, Licence No. 34/2015.
