Sincerest apologies to Mabalacat City College

I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE TO THE ADMINISTRATION, OFFICIALS AND STUDENTS OF MABALACAT CITY COLLEGE FOR ANY OFFENSE MY COLUMN MIGHT HAVE CAUSED YOU. THERE WAS NO MALICIOUS IMPUTATION AND DEFAMATION INTENDED. IT WAS JUST MY BOLD STYLE OF WRITING. AGAIN, MY SINCEREST AND HEARTFELT APOLOGIES.

***** People resort to all kinds of lending platforms and individuals, including loan sharks, to tide them over the financial crisis.

They all fall prey to socalled online lenders whose come-on ads are hard to ignore and so many borrow from them not knowing fully well the risks involved.

In a recent report, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the Certificate of Authority of one online lender because of its unfair debt collection practices.

SEC disclosed 15 violations of this lender of its Memorandum Circular which provides for the unfair debt collection practices of financing and lending companies.

The agency found it threatening its borrowers with shaming on social media by publishing their names as scammers and contacting people in the borrowers' contact list despite not being named as co-makers or guarant or s.

Additionally, the offending online lender also used obscenities, insults or profane language in its debt collection and threatened to sue borrowers based on made-up legal bases.

It has been observed, however, that there are online lenders which are not in the radar of SEC and they continue to threaten with impunity their gullible borrowers.

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The SEC claims to continue to monitor lending and financing companies for their compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations.

SEC Memorandum Circular 18 which took effect September 8, 2019 was part of the agency's response to several complaints for unreasonable, abusive and unfair practices that lending and financing companies employ to collect debts from borrowers.

The revocation of the CA of this online lending firm brings the total number of financing/ lending companies with cancelled licenses due to various violations of SEC rules and regulations to 35.

To date, however, a total of 2,081 lending companies had their primary registration revoked by SEC due to their failure to secure the required certificate of authority.

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