What does innovation look like for an industry as enduring as pawnbroking? For MoneyMax, it was among the pawnbroking firms in the industry to introduce drive-through pawnbroking services in Malaysia.
Lim Yong Guan, executive chairman and CEO of MoneyMax, tells this story: when MoneyMax first ventured into Malaysia, it involved multiple research trips — long hours on the road, scouting for suitable pawnshop locations and observing customers’ behaviour.
Something peculiar began to catch their attention. In Singapore, it was once common for customers visiting pawnshops to feel self-conscious about their transactions. They might be anxious about being spotted by someone who knows them; most of the time, they visit and leave in a hurry.
In Malaysia, customers visiting pawnshops were often in a hurry as well. However, they would be in a hurry for a different reason. Due to the frequent lack of parking space around the pawnshops, they had to conclude their pawnbroking transactions quickly to move their vehicles and avoid obstructing traffic.
MoneyMax realised that in Malaysia, pawnbroking is closely intertwined with customers’ needs for privacy, safety and parking. And so, MoneyMax Malaysia launched its first drive-through pawnbroking service in 2022. Customers could pledge or redeem assets without leaving their vehicles, just as they could deposit cash at a bank’s window. It was novel and it worked.
“Opportunities favour the prepared,” Lim says — one of the many titbits of wisdom he likes to share from his tenure so far as CEO.
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This story captures something essential about MoneyMax. Despite operating one of humanity’s oldest trades, their approach to doing business is rooted in timeless principles: offering value and reliability, focusing on relationships and community, and continually positioning for the future.
Challenging the stigma of pawnbroking
The MoneyMax story began in the jewellery retail industry. The family business, SK Jewellery, founded in 1991, traded in gold and diamonds. By the mid-2000s, growth had slowed. “Retail wasn’t scaling as fast as before,” Lim recalls. Soon after came the 2008 global financial crisis. “Drawing on its three strengths — deep expertise in gold and jewellery, trusted employees and strong business reputation, having successfully managed a jewellery chain store — the company opened its first pawnshop in Singapore,” Lim says.
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Today, MoneyMax operates more than 100 outlets across Singapore and Malaysia, with pawnbroking as its core business driver, complemented by jewellery retail, automotive financing and property-backed lending. Pawnshops are among the most enduring financial institutions on earth. They predate modern banks, offering almost immediate liquidity and cash flow in exchange for collateral. In many parts of Asia, they still dot neighbourhood streets, fixtures of local economies for both small business owners and everyday folks.
Lim shares that in Singapore, MoneyMax has attempted to redefine pawnbroking as something entirely different: not a last resort for the desperate, but a mainstream form of microfinance. A watch collector short on cash, a small business owner covering payroll, a parent paying tuition overseas. Each of them can walk into a MoneyMax outlet, pledge collateral and walk out with cash. There is only the necessary paperwork and, most importantly, no stigma.
Where banks may not be able to extend loans collateralised against one’s valuables, MoneyMax steps in to fill the gap. For MoneyMax, it is also a model that works across cycles, Lim says. “Demand rises in downturns when liquidity is tight, and persists in upturns as affluent collectors seek short-term leverage.”
Notably, in the first half of FY2025, group revenue rose 31.2% y-o-y to $243.0 million. In comparison, net profits jumped 76.4% to $31.8 million, driven mainly by strong performance in the pawnbroking, and retail and trading of gold and luxury items segments.
Transforming a 1,000-year-old business
Currently, MoneyMax’s five-year plan has two pillars. The first is to continue its expansion plans in Singapore and Malaysia by strengthening its existing segments, namely pawnbroking, retail, trading and secured lending. The second is to explore and prepare for diversification into other suitable Southeast Asian markets, where demographic trends and consumers’ behaviour mirror its existing markets.
But it is worth noting that MoneyMax’s vision extends beyond simply establishing more outlets. Lim describes Singapore and Malaysia as both “anchors” and “sandboxes”. They are markets that generate steady cash flow while also allowing the group to pilot new formats and products.
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The goal is to eventually transition from being seen as a pure-play pawnshop operator to a full-spectrum, collateral-backed financial services group. This means building in adjacent verticals, such as automotive financing and property-backed lending — businesses that rely on the same compliance infrastructure and underwriting discipline honed in pawnbroking.
Taking Indonesia, for example, the appeal lies in its vast population, rising middle class, and a cultural familiarity with pledging gold as collateral. But Lim insists the move won’t be opportunistic. “Opportunities favour the prepared,” he says.
Years before entering Malaysia, MoneyMax had already mapped market density, demographics, and prepared a modernised, systematic approach to managing and operating a pawnshop. For any potential new markets, management will adopt a similar approach by studying entry pathways, regulatory requirements and consumer demand.
Lim shares that he has a rule: “When faced with two priorities, pick one and execute fully. Don’t flip-flop and try too hard to hedge your bets.”
Underlying this is a philosophy that strikes a balance between risk and danger. Risk can be managed, priced and prepared for, he says. Danger cannot. For investors, that means MoneyMax is building for conviction and business resilience, rather than chasing growth at all costs.
Hence, despite its rapid expansion, the group maintains a robust balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of approximately $18.9 million as of June 30.
Lim emphasises: “The company’s philosophy is to do our research, prepare playbooks early, then move fast when windows open.”
Culture as business strategy
Another of Lim’s nuggets of wisdom is: “Take responsibility, give credit away.” This leadership ethos has built loyalty across hundreds of frontline employees.
Lim shares that it was not uncommon in the past for MoneyMax to occasionally extend loans to its own employees — often offering them more favourable terms — to help them through tight spots.
In this way, culture has become part of its business strategy. Daily face-to-face briefings with department heads keep the organisation nimble, following Lim’s preference for emotional nuance and directness when it comes to key decisions.
Many employees have been with the company for decades, some of whom lack tertiary qualifications. Yet, they have been promoted and trusted to manage key areas of the business based on character and merit.
Succession is also handled fairly and pragmatically: family members must prove themselves in the market and not rely on their surname to rise through the organisation. For example, group general manager Lim Chun Seng was only given more responsibility when he initiated, launched and successfully grew MoneyMax’s auto-financing business.
As MoneyMax grows, Lim shares that it is keeping the community at its core. Its education grants, charity initiatives and donations to social service non-profit organisations are all evidence of its commitment to giving back to its local communities.
And so perhaps MoneyMax’s journey offers a reminder: growth stories can come from startups chasing disruption, and they can also come from companies willing to evolve institutions that have lasted a thousand years.
Like Lim says, “Don’t try to earn everything at once — leave value for the customers, and the business will come.”
About MoneyMax Financial Services
Listed on the Catalist Board of the Singapore Exchange since August 2013, MoneyMax Financial Services and its subsidiaries are a leading financial services provider, retailer and trader of luxury products in Southeast Asia. The group provides both pawnbroking services and secured financing services to its customers. Since its first outlet opened in 2008, the group has expanded to over 100 stores, making it one of the largest pawnbroking and retail chains in the industry.
About kopi-C: the Company brew
kopi-C is a regular column by SGX Research in collaboration with Beansprout (https://growbeansprout.com), a MAS-licensed investment advisory platform, that features C-level executives of leading companies listed on SGX. These interviews are profiles of senior management aimed at helping investors better understand the individuals who run these corporations
