The National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1) amend the National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations 2010 to modify the restriction in Section 67 of the Act on a registered person being appointed as a credit representative by allowing it during the transitional period and allows a person to be appointed as a credit representative while they are still registered (regulation 25A).

Previously, a person who elected to operate as a credit representative but who initially registered with ASIC in the period from 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2010 could not be authorised to engage in credit activities until they applied to have their registration cancelled, and it has been cancelled.

However, where a person thinks that their principal will not become registered, or will not authorise them to engage in credit activities on their behalf, before the end of the registration period, they may need to apply for registration if they want to continue to engage in credit activities from 1 July 2010. The regulation avoids the need for such persons to then apply to ASIC for their registration to be cancelled before they can be authorised as a credit representative of your principal.

The regulation allows a person to authorise a registered person to act on their behalf as a credit representative where it is reasonably expected that the registered person will engage in a credit activity only as a credit representative, and seeks to avoid any gap in their business activities until their registration has been cancelled.

The regulation provides that the authorisation will cease to have effect if the registered person has not, within 15 business days from the date of authorisation, requested the cancellation of their registration.