“During this period, the government stepped in very quickly with the Job Support Scheme (JSS), and that helped. Many were found to have more money and no place to spend them. So, instead of pawning their valuables for loans, we found that redemption was very high during that time,” recalls Ng, adding that the interest in pawning items to get loans to spend came back when the circuit breaker was lifted, as consumers were allowed to go out and about and spend.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, and drastic measures were needed to curb the spread of the virus, most retail shops were told to shut. However, pawnshops, deemed to be providing an essential financial service, were allowed to keep their doors open throughout the different phases of lockdown and reopening.
At first, many thought that pawnbrokers were allowed to keep their doors open so that people whose jobs were affected by the pandemic could pawn their items and receive some short-term loan at a low interest rate. But this was not exactly the case. Ng Kean Seen, deputy CEO of Maxi-Cash Financial Services, tells The Edge Singapore that during the “circuit breaker”, the company’s pawnshops continued to operate, but only to give out loans or allow people to come and redeem their goods. Its retail segments were not allowed to operate.
