- The Bankers Association welcomes changes announced last week to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) but says they do not go far enough.
- Roger Beaumont, chief executive of the New Zealand Bankers’ Association, said that while the government “identified some of the main pain points for consumers,” ’it is “not clear the changes … will move the dial enough to make a difference.”
- “The combination of LVR restrictions, CCCFA changes, increasing interest rates and taxation changes in particular appear to be having the effect of slowing growth in the home-lending market,” the Association said in its submission. These changes “may have resolved the problem that DTIs would be designed to address,” it said.
- “We’d like to see the new rules work in a way that doesn’t restrict access to responsible lending for consumers who can afford it, while ensuring vulnerable consumers are protected from high-cost credit that may not suit their circumstances,” NZBA CEO Roger Beaumont said.
- NZ Bankers Association’s Roger Beaumont told Andrew Dickens they’ll help, but the law could still be improved. “I would describe them as a small step in the right direction. There’s a lot more heavy lifting that needs to go on in terms of getting into the detail of these regulations.”
- “We’d like to see the new rules work in a way that doesn’t restrict access to responsible lending for consumers who can afford it, while ensuring vulnerable consumers are protected from high-cost credit that may not suit their circumstances. These changes maintain the one-size fits all approach that hasn’t worked so far.”
- Roger Beaumont, NZBA chief executive, said: “We think they’ve identified some of the main pain points for consumers, but it’s not clear the changes announced today will move the dial enough to make a difference.
- “Members remain concerned the CCCFA’s prescriptive rules, combined with significant penalties, may ultimately drive more conservative lending behaviour that could limit access to credit,” NZBA chief executive Roger Beaumont said.
- “We note that some central banks, most notably the Federal Reserve, have suggested that CBDC’s may be a ‘solution looking for a problem,’ and that even where there are problems in the payment system, there are more effective means to resolve them than a CBDC,” NZBA said.
