Abacus – Australian Mutuals, the association of mutual building societies and credit unions, has issued a Draft Code of Practice for all credit unions and mutual building societies that belong to Abacus and a consultation paper .

The Draft Code of Practice covers a wide range of banking and
related topics, including product
information, fair terms, responsible lending practices, finance
brokers, equity release products, account information, customers in
financial difficulties and complaint handling.

The draft Code is open for comment until Friday 7 December 2007 .

Abacus’ objective is to release the final Code, subject to approval by the Abacus board, in early 2008. A transition period of 12-months from publication is envisaged.

If ASIC approval is to be sought, the Code will need to satisfy RG183.9.