Our Story...
1. The idea for CCS began as early as 2001 when judges from the Subordinate Courts (currently known as the State Courts) expressed their concern over problems caused to individuals and families by the rising consumer credit indebtedness.
2. A pro-tem committee consisting Subordinate Court district judges, the South West Community Development Council and The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) organised a Consumer Credit Counselling Conference on 21 November 2002. The then Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam challenged banking and community leaders to implement community credit counselling schemes.
3. Throughout 2003, the Subordinate Courts, South West Community Development Council, Singapore Pools and other concerned individuals combined resources to lay the foundations for CCS. Initial funding came from Singapore Pools and National Council of Social Service. South West Community Development Council pledged financial support for educational programmes. The Association of Banks in Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore and all the banks gave regular feedback on what they would like to see in CCS.
4. A trial run took effect in August 2003 with a small group of volunteers to test run the idea of putting up a Debt Management Programme (DMP), a monthly instalment debt repayment plan, on behalf of distressed borrowers. DMP proposed a longer repayment period as well as concessionary interest rates to enable the overly-indebted borrowers to repay their debts in a more feasible manner. Some of the pilot credit counselling sessions were conducted at the Subordinate Courts (now known as State Courts) premises.
5. On 12 March 2004, CCS was officially registered as a society with a small team of full time staff. By this time CCS had managed to assuage the initial scepticism of the banking industry over the merits of credit counselling. Banks appeared more supportive of DMP. As a result, CCS was ready to launch publicly to broadcast its services to the general public.