CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
Pawnshops have been around in one form or another for the past 3,000 years. They offer services similar to those of modern banking institutions including loans, consignments, and storage. A good pawn broker buys items for a reasonable price and sells them at a discount. The pawn industry is about making money, and that means repeat business and reasonable dealings.
A good pawnshop will carry a variety of items including jewelry, tools, antiques, furniture, knives, guns, crossbows, camping gear, and everything and anything you could imagine being of value and sellable. Some pawn shops even buy and sell cars, motorcycles, and aircraft.
In the Philippines Pawnshop Operation is guided/ covered by Presidential Decree No. 114 Sec. 1-2 as:
This decree may be cited as the Pawnshop Regulation Act, which stipulated according to that: “ It is hereby declared the policy of the State to regulate the establishment of pawnshops and to place their operation on a sound and stable basis to derive the optimum advantages from them as an additional source of credit; to prevent and mitigate, as far as practicable, practices prejudicial to public interest; and to lay down the minimum requirements and standards under which they may be established and do business...”

The word "pawn" comes from the Latin word "pignus," which means to pledge. When someone has an item of worth on which they would like to receive a monetary loan, they take that item to a broker who receives it as a pledge (aka collateral or pawn) in exchange for money. A pawn shop serves as that kind of broker.
Pawn shops have existed since ancient times, and are arguably humankind's oldest financial institution. In China, the history of pawn-broking can be traced back some 3000 years, where it was regulated by Imperial authorities. In India the practice