Before you sign your annual compliance certificate this year you need to check whether your supporting sign offs actually extend to all “the credit legislation” as defined in the National Credit Act.

Section 47(1)(d) of the National Credit Act requires credit licensees to “comply with the credit legislation”.

Credit legislation is defined in section 5 as not only the Credit Act and Code but also Division 2 of Part 2 of the ASIC Act and “(d) any other Commonwealth, State or Territory legislation that covers conduct relating to credit activities (whether or not it also covers other conduct), but only in so far as it covers conduct relating to credit activities.”

This includes for example the Privacy Act credit reporting provisions and the AML/CTF Act and the State Fair Trading Acts.

Credit licensees are required to lodge with ASIC a compliance certificate (and pay the required fee) no later than 45 days after the licensee’s licensing anniversary in each year: section 53 National Credit Act.

ASIC’s questions include:

“As at the annual compliance date, did the licensee have adequate arrangements and systems in place to ensure that it complied with the conditions of its licence?”

“As at the annual compliance date, did the licensee have adequate arrangements and systems in place to ensure that it complied with the credit legislation?”

The certificate concludes with a declaration that “to the best of its knowledge, the information supplied in this certificate is complete and accurate (it is an offence to provide false or misleading information to ASIC)”.

Bright Law can assist with advice on your compliance obligations and systems and a review of your compliance implementation.