Aiming to offer small businesses greater financial transparency and protections, the federal government has passed new laws allowing SME’s better access to finance.
The National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment Bill 2019 passed through Parliament on February 3rd, under which credit providers cannot refuse to provide further credit or reduce a customer’s credit limit due to financial hardship information.
In addition:
- Credit providers from 1st April 2020 must provide credit information on consumer credit accounts to credit reporting bodies.
- Financial hardship information must be reported alongside repayment history.
- Customers will be able to access their credit files for free every three months.
- Credit reporting bodies will be mandated to share a consumer’s credit score range and an explanation of the input information that determines the credit score.
- Hardship information will only be accessible to lenders where the customer is seeking to access new credit (or the customer agrees to the information being provided)
