The Consumer Credit Act 2025: Malaysia New Credit Regulator

For years, Malaysian consumer credit was supervised in pieces. Banks sat with the central bank, moneylenders and pawnbrokers with the housing ministry, and some newer products sat awkwardly between ministries. The Consumer Credit Act 2025 is the attempt to put a single frame around all of it.

The dates that matter

• 22 December 2025: the Act received royal assent.
• 31 December 2025: gazetted.
• 1 March 2026: came into force.
• 1 June 2026: licensing and registration opened.
• 31 December 2026: end of the transition period for industry participants to apply for a licence or registration.

That last date is the one worth noting right now, because the transition window is still open as this is written and closes at the end of the year.

The new regulator

The Act established the Consumer Credit Commission, which publishes at skp.gov.my. It acts as the competent authority over credit providers, both conventional and Shariah compliant, as well as credit service providers that were previously lightly supervised or not supervised at all.

Who is brought in, and when

The framework is being rolled out in phases rather than all at once.

• The first phase focuses on sectors that were previously unregulated or lightly regulated: buy now pay later services, factoring, leasing, debt collection, and buyers of impaired loans.
• Later phases bring the rest of the consumer credit landscape under the same framework, including banks, licensed moneylenders, pawnbrokers and vehicle financing.

Existing regimes do not vanish while this happens. The Moneylenders Act 1951 ceilings of 12 per cent a year secured and 18 per cent unsecured continue to apply to licensed moneylenders, and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government remains the place to verify a moneylender licence at kpkt.gov.my.

What it means for you as a borrower

• Fewer gaps. Credit products that previously had no clear regulator now have one, which matters most when something goes wrong.
• A clearer complaint route. Knowing which authority supervises a provider is half of resolving a dispute.
• Conduct standards across the board. Responsible lending duties and debt collection standards apply to providers that previously set their own.
• A question worth asking during the transition. Until the end of 2026, participants are still applying for licences. Asking a provider what its status is under the Act is a reasonable question.

In short

One framework, one commission, phased in. The old rules still bite in the meantime, and the transition window closes on 31 December 2026.