Brockton, MA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Sec. 11-300 sets the local ceiling on what a licensed pawnbroker can charge for a loan in Brockton: three percent per month, or thirty-six percent per annum, and that rate only takes effect once the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Commissioners of Banks approves it, tying the city's local cap to state banking oversight rather than letting the city set it unilaterally. The provision traces back to Ordinance G039, adopted June 25, 2007, and sits within the fee-and-licensing framework Chapter 11 builds through its general provisions: Sec.

11-1 bars anyone from operating a business requiring a license without first obtaining one, Sec. 11-3 requires the city clerk to attest and issue every license under the city seal, and Sec. 11-4 lets the issuing board or officer suspend or revoke a license at any time in its discretion. The city clerk's fee schedule in Sec. 11-200 sets the pawnbroker license itself at three hundred sixty dollars annually, the same rate charged for junk dealer, junk collector and secondhand precious-metals licenses in the same table, reflecting that all of these trades run through a shared licensing structure even though the interest-rate cap is pawnbroking's own rule.

Because pawnbroker licensing in Massachusetts is primarily governed by General Laws Chapter 140, Sections 63 through 73, Brockton's ordinance layers a local interest-rate ceiling and license fee on top of that state framework rather than replacing it.