Gerakan supports Bank Negara’s proposal to impose stricter credit-card rules, saying it will help control indiscreet credit card spending and reduce financial mismanagement, especially amongst young people.

Gerakan’s head of central bureau on public health and social development, Datuk Dr Ng Keong Chye, said that statistics have shown that credit card bankruptcies have been rising, and increasingly, have become prevalent among young people.

“Presently, there is no rules forbidding a person to have many credit cards from different banks and this is unhealthy as the risks of he or she ends up spending beyond his or her means are real ,” said Ng in a statement.

Ng, who is also Ketari State Assemblyman, said Bank Negara should look into imposing stricter conditions including increasing the income level of a credit card holder and limiting the number of credit cards per consumer.

“Banks should be stricter to vet applicants, especially those young people who have either just entered the workforce or who earn less than RM3,000 a month,” he said, adding that it was unhealthy to see some banks competing with each other with offers of gifts for more credit card holders without properly vetting the applications.

He said some financial institutions have been issuing credit cards liberally and freely and this debt-driven consumer spending must be stopped to cut excessive and unproductive consumer spending which is absolutely unsustainable in supporting the overall economy in medium and longer terms.

It was reported that Bank Negara was considering to impose stricter credit-card and personal-loan limits to maintain household debts in Malaysia at a healthy level.