The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has canceled the certificate of authority of FCash Global Lending Inc. to operate as a lending company due to its unfair debt collection practices.
The SEC said it found FCash liable of multiple violations in unfair debt collection as provided under SEC Memorandum Circular No. 18, Series of 2019 (MC 18), or the Prohibition on Unfair Debt Collection Practices of Financing Companies and Lending Companies.
The SEC said FCash, which operates online lending platforms Fast Cash and Fast Cash Loan, “has made multiple attempts to collect loan payments by contacting or threatening persons other than those that the borrower has identified as guarantors or co-makers.”
FCash likewise sent messages threatening borrowers with charges for estafa, complaints before the National Bureau of Investigation, and service of writ of garnishment or writ of attachment.
“Furthermore, FCash threatened to report borrowers to their respective employers and used abusive words when talking to them over the phone,” the SEC said, noting how FCash took advantage of borrowers’ lack of awareness of legal terminologies to compel them to pay their loans.
The Commission initially imposed a fine of P25,000 on FCash for its first violation of SEC MC 18 on September 25, 2019, and another fine of P50,000 for its second violation on September 26, 2019.
On Dec. 12, 2019, SEC’s Corporate Governance and Finance Department formally charged FCash for its third violation of SEC MC 18.
The Commission issued SEC MC 18, which took effect on September 8, 2019, in response to several complaints for unreasonable, abusive and unfair practices that lending and financing companies used in order to collect debt from borrowers.
FCash has had one of the most number of complaints for collection harassment since 2017.
