Submission to: Treasury
Joint submission on behalf of 22 consumer organisations who make up the Close Lending Loopholes Coalition, including Australia’s leading consumer advocates, charities, community groups, legal centres, family violence organisations, and financial counselling practitioners.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) credit products exploit loopholes in Australia’s credit law to sell people into unaffordable debt. This unregulated credit industry is causing serious economic and social harm to people, families and households across the country. At present, these harms far outweigh the benefits BNPL brings to the economy.
We recommend Option 3 be implemented to apply full regulation of BNPL under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (the Credit Act), and the National Credit Code (the Credit Code). We also support applying additional consumer protections beyond what is outlined in Option 3.