By Paul Ho (guest contributor)

Gone are the days when applying for a bank loan was a breeze – all thanks to the MAS rules regarding the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) and stricter lending criteria, especially with the clause pertaining to “Proof of Debt”.

What does “Proof of Debt” mean?

Banks are required to enforce the MAS’ TDSR limit set at 60%, which includes housing loan servicing as well as that of other debt. The burden is on the banks to make sure that they impose the “Proof of Debt” on potential borrowers. As a result, if your credit report shows that you have several credit cards and if one of the cards shows that payment is not made in full, banks will then require you to print out your credit card statements to ascertain the outstanding loan amount. The banks will then use this amount to impute the ...