The English daily said this was so after the borrowers were blacklisted under the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) for either failing to service their study loans on time or defaulting on repayments, which in turn saw them classified as “bad paymasters.”
CCRIS is a database used by financial institutions to evaluate those who have applied for loans.
PTPTN Deputy Chief Executive Officer (policy and operations) Mastura Mohd Khalid told the English daily that all PTPTN borrowers would be listed in CCRIS once it was time for them to start paying back their loan, which normally began six months upon graduation.
Those who regularly repay their PTPTN loans, she revealed, need not worry.
“If they are good paymasters, then their future loan applications will be approved.”
Mastura also revealed that since PTPTN started to use CCRIS in 2015, more defaulters had come forward to negotiate for a more lenient repayment mode.
Since its inception in 1997 until July this year, PTPTN has handed out loans to 2.49 million students.
Apart from CCRIS, PTPTN is also collaborating with the Immigration Department to bar defaulters from leaving the country.
In March, it was reported that a total of 662,983 borrowers failed to pay back their PTPTN loans amounting to RM5.4 billion as of Dec 31, 2015.
The Higher Education Ministry also revealed that another RM2.79 billion was arrears as some borrowers repaid in amounts much less than those set by PTPTN.
In July the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK) said that the high-maintenance lifestyles of fresh graduates led to many finding themselves in financial debt even as young adults new to the job market.
The agency’s CEO Azaddin Ngah Tasir said that debts accumulated by young adults often started with education loans, and were quickly followed by car loans when they started working, and credit cards loans soon after.