On 2 March 2026, Malaysia's Ministry of Finance confirmed in a media release, Penguatkuasaan Akta Kredit Pengguna 2025 Dan Penubuhan Suruhanjaya Kredit Pengguna, that the general provisions of the Consumer Credit Act 2025 (Akta Kredit Pengguna 2025), the Laws of Malaysia Act 873, had come into force on 1 March 2026, together with the establishment of the Consumer Credit Commission (Suruhanjaya Kredit Pengguna, SKP). The move brings previously unregulated consumer credit activity, including buy now pay later (BNPL) financing, under a single statutory perimeter for the first time. It reflects a broader tightening of financial licensing across Southeast Asia, where neighbours such as Vietnam have moved to penalise activity conducted on unlicensed venues.
The Act received Royal Assent on 22 December 2025 and was gazetted on 31 December 2025. Its commencement is phased: the general provisions took effect on 1 March 2026, while the licensing regime in Part V begins on 1 June 2026. The full text is available through the SKP's legislation page and the official Act 873 PDF published by the Attorney General's Chambers.
A single statutory perimeter for consumer credit
The Consumer Credit Act 2025 sets up the SKP under Part II of the Act as the body responsible for licensing and supervising credit businesses and credit service businesses in Malaysia. The Commission consolidates oversight of segments that previously sat outside the direct authorisation of Bank Negara Malaysia or the Securities Commission, and it is the live regulator taking this work forward following the earlier preparatory phase. Its remit covers who may offer regulated credit, the conduct they must observe, and the enforcement powers that back those obligations.
By defining a regulated class of "credit business" and attaching licensing and conduct duties to it, the Act converts a fragmented set of consumer-lending activities into a supervised market. That reframing matters for compliance teams because it fixes, for the first time, a clear answer to whether a given product requires authorisation and which regulator holds the file. Malaysia also joins a wider Asian shift towards purpose-built statutory regimes for fast-growing finance, echoing Taiwan's move to stand up a dedicated statutory licensing regime for its own emerging sector.
BNPL becomes a licensed credit business
The pivotal change for the buy now pay later sector sits in Schedule 2 of the Act, which lists the "buy now pay later scheme", alongside an Islamic BNPL variant, as a regulated credit business. The effect is direct: a provider offering BNPL financing to consumers in Malaysia must hold a licence from the SKP, and its offering falls within the Act's conduct framework rather than outside formal supervision.
The conduct standards attached to that framework centre on transparency and fair dealing, including disclosure to consumers, fair pricing, and how products are advertised. In practice, this means BNPL operators are expected to make the cost and terms of credit clear at the point of sale, price and structure repayments fairly, and hold marketing to the standards the Act sets, rather than treating BNPL as an unregulated retail feature.
The six-month transition under section 135
Firms already in the market are not shut out overnight. Section 135 of the Act provides transitional relief: a person already carrying on a business that becomes regulated under the Act at the appointed date must apply for the relevant licence or registration within six months, and may continue operating, subject to conditions, while the SKP decides the application. The relief is a bridge, not a permanent carve-out, and it is conditional on making the application within the window.
For incumbents, the practical read is a clock rather than a reprieve. The transition period turns the licensing start date into a deadline for existing BNPL providers to file their applications, with continued operation contingent on doing so and on observing any conditions the Commission imposes in the meantime.
What compliance teams should do now
BNPL providers, merchants and payment intermediaries that distribute their products should first confirm whether their activity falls within the Schedule 2 definition of a regulated credit business. If so, the immediate task is to prepare a licence or registration application to the SKP and map the six-month section 135 window against the licensing commencement so the filing lands inside it. Firms that hesitate, risk operating outside the transitional shelter once the period lapses.
Beyond the licence itself, teams should audit their consumer-facing disclosures, pricing structures, and advertising against the Act's conduct expectations, and build governance to evidence ongoing compliance. That includes clear cost-of-credit disclosure at checkout, affordability and fair-pricing controls, and marketing review aligned to the standards the SKP supervises. Legal and compliance functions should also monitor the SKP's subsidiary instruments and guidance as the Part V regime beds in from 1 June 2026, since the operational detail of licensing conditions will shape day-to-day obligations.
Malaysia's Consumer Credit Act 2025 marks a structural shift: BNPL is no longer an unlicensed retail-finance product but a supervised credit business with a named regulator, a licensing gate and enforceable conduct duties. As the SKP moves from establishment into active licensing from June 2026, providers that treat the section 135 window as a deadline and align disclosure, pricing and advertising to the statutory standard will be positioned to trade inside the new perimeter rather than outside it.
