What does the national credit regulator regulate?

Vessio, Monica

Abstract

The National Credit Act, 34 of 2005, replaced the previous consumer credit dispensation in South Africa established by the Usury Act 73 of 1968 and the Credit Agreements Act 75 of 1980. While the new Act is quite far-reaching, the administrative task of coordinating the implementation of this new piece of legislation is a rather mammoth one. In terms of its pre-amble, the Act is to promote a fair and nondiscriminatory marketplace for access to consumer credit4 and for that purpose to provide for the general regulation of consumer credit and improved standards of consumer information; to promote black economic empowerment and ownership within the consumer credit industry; to prohibit unfair credit and credit-marketing practices; to promote responsible credit granting and use, and for that purpose, to prohibit reckless credit granting; to provide for debt reorganisation in cases of over-indebtedness; to regulate credit information; to provide for the registration of credit bureaux, credit providers and debt-counseling services; to establish national norms and standards relating to consumer credit and to promote a consistent enforcement framework relating to consumer credit. Section 3 of the Act further sets out its purposes: to promote and advance the social and economic welfare of South Africans; to promote a fair, transparent, competitive, sustainable, responsible, efficient, effective and accessible credit market and industry; and to protect consumers. But how will these formidable goals be attained, enforced, sustained and managed? Section 12 of the Act established the NCR to act as supervisory watchdog, administrator, regulator, and finder and keeper of information. In broad terms, the NCR is responsible for the regulation of the South African credit industry as a whole. It is further tasked with carrying out education, research, policy development, the registration of industry participants, the investigation of complaints, and ensuring enforcement of the Act. Clearly the Regulator is faced with no small mission. However, its strategy appears to involve a touch-and-go approach: ‘As questions come up – ones needs to – as the National Credit Regulator representative – say, ‘‘what is the reasonable interpretation of the applicable section?’’’ The article analysis the responsibilities of the National Credit Regulator.

Citation

Vessio, M. (2008). What does the national credit regulator regulate?. South African Mercantile Law Journal, 20(2), 227-242

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Oct 28, 2020
• Journal: South African Mercantile Law Journal
• Print ISSN: 1015-0099
• Publisher: Juta Law
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 227-242
• Series ISSN: 1015-0099
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6820796
• Publisher URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC54301