Singapore, 22 Jan 2003...The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that from today, it will be lifting its 1995 car loan guidelines which restricted the maximum financing for the purchase of a car to 70% of its purchase price, including the price of its Certificate of Entitlement (COE), to be repaid over a period of not more than seven years.

Car loans form a small proportion of financial institutions' total loan portfolio, and the level of non-performing car loans is also low. The lifting of the limits on car loans is therefore in line with MAS' shift from a one-size-fits-all supervisory approach to a risk-focused approach.

MAS expects financial institutions to continue to uphold prudent lending standards that take into account the credit worthiness of the borrower, his/her debt servicing ability and the value of collateral when assessing car loan applications.

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