Justification for Exempting Creditors from Attending Debt Repayment Scheme Hearings

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Law (a) what is the justification for allowing creditors to be exempt from attending Debt Repayment Scheme hearings; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider making such attendance by creditors mandatory in the future.

Under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018, the Official Assignee (OA) must convene a meeting of creditors to review the debtor’s debt repayment plan before approving it.

This allows the debtor and the creditors to express their views or raise objections to the proposed debt repayment plan before the plan is approved. Any creditor who is named in a debtor’s statement of affairs may choose to attend the meeting. There is, however, no legal requirement to do so.

Creditors can also submit written questions or raise any objections he or she may have on the proposed debt repayment plan for the OA’s consideration.

The current system allows for the views of both the debtor and the creditors to be taken into account while giving the creditor the flexibility to decide if he or she wishes to attend a meeting. There is, therefore, no need to mandate the creditor’s attendance at the meeting.