Mauritius
Moneylenders Act
Act 30 of 1959
- Commenced on 1 January 1960
- [This is the version of this document at 30 June 2017.]
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Moneylenders Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act—"authorised name" and "authorised address" mean respectively the business name under which, and the address at which, a moneylender is authorised by a certificate to carry on business as a moneylender;"certificate" means a certificate granted under section 6;"company" means a body corporate which is a moneylender;"licence" means a licence granted under section 4;"moneylender" means a person whose business is that of moneylending or who carries on, advertises, announces himself or holds himself out in any way as carrying on that business, whether or not he possesses or owns property or money derived from sources other than the lending of money, and whether or not he carries on the business as a principal or as an agent;"principal", in relation to a loan, means the amount actually lent to the borrower.[S. 2 amended by Act 25 of 2000.]3. Moneylender
Subject to the definition of "moneylender", any person who lends money at interest or in consideration of a larger sum being repaid shall, unless the contrary is proved, be presumed to be a moneylender.4. Licences
5. Offences
Where a person—6. Certificates required for licence
7. Application for certificate
Any person intending to apply for a certificate shall, 14 days at least before his application—8. Refusal to grant certificate
9. Transfer of business from authorised address
10. Suspension of certificate
11. Disqualification
12. Form of moneylender's contract
12A. Nullity of contract
A contract for money lending shall be null and void where—13. Interest
14. Penalty for charging unauthorised interest
15. Prohibition of compound interest
16. ***
17. Prohibition of charge for expenses on loan
18. Employment of canvassers prohibited
19. Receipts and record of transaction
20. Moneylender to supply information
21. Restrictions on advertisements
22. Assignment of moneylender's debts
23. Application of Act to assignees
24. Reopening of moneylending transactions
25. Inducing borrowing by false statements
A moneylender or his manager, agent or clerk, or a director, manager or other officer of any corporation carrying on the business of a moneylender who—26. Taking promissory note with amount left blank
27. Reward to informer
Where, on the conviction of a person for an offence under this Act, a fine is imposed, the Court may, if it thinks fit, order that a sum not exceeding one half of the sum recovered in respect of the fine be paid to the person, not being the borrower in the transaction which was the subject-matter of the proceedings, who informed the authorities that the offence had been committed.28. Frivolous and vexatious action
29. Limitation period
30. Jurisdiction
31. Exemption from Act
This Act shall not apply—32. Offences and penalties
33. Regulations
History of this document
30 June 2017 this version
Consolidation
01 January 1960
Commenced