CAP. 163]
Money Lenders
[1988 Ed.
"licence" means a money lender's licence granted under section 11 or renewed under section 13, and "licensed" and "licensee" have corresponding meanings; (Amended, 69 of 1988, s. 2)
"licensing court" means-
(a) a magistrate sitting alone; or
(b) a magistrate sitting with 2 assessors,
as the case may be, in accordance with section 10, 14 or 15; (Replaced, 69 of 1988, s. 2)
"loan" includes advance, discount, money paid for or on account of or on behalf of or at the request of any person, or the forbearance to require payment of money owing on any account whatsoever, and every agreement (whatever its terms or form may be) which is in substance or effect a loan of money, and also an agreement to secure the repayment of any such loan, and "lend" and "lender" shall be construed accordingly;
"money lender" means every person whose business (whether or not he carries on any other business) is that of making loans or who advertises or announces himself or holds himself out in any way as carrying on that business, but does not include---
(a) a person specified in Part 1 of Schedule 1; or
(b) as respects a loan specified in Part 2 of Schedule 1, any person who makes such loan; (Amended, 69 of 1988, s. 2)
"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made under section 34;
"principal", in relation to a loan, means the amount actually lent;
"register" means the register kept by the Registrar under section 4;
"Registrar" means the Registrar of Money Lenders appointed under section 4; "subsidiary" means subsidiary within the meaning of section 2 of the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32). (Added, 69 of 1988, s. 2)
(2) For the purposes of this Ordinance, where by an agreement for the loan of money the interest charged on the loan is not expressed in terms of a rate, any amount paid or payable to the lender under the agreement (other than simple interest charged in accordance with the proviso to section 22) shall be appropriated to principal and interest in the proportion that the total amount of principal bears to the total amount of the interest, and the rate per cent per annum represented by the interest charged as calculated in accordance with Schedule 2 shall be deemed to be the rate of interest charged on the loan. (Amended, 69 of 1988, s. 2)
(3) For the purpose of determining the amount of the principal of a loan, any amount thereof which is not shown to have been lent except for the purpose of treating it as an instalment paid by the borrower in repayment of the loan and which is so treated by the lender shall be disregarded.
(4) References in this Ordinance to an assessor are references to a person appointed to a panel of assessors under section 7A of the Magistrates Ordinance (Cap. 227). (Added, 69 of 1988, s. 2)
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