National Credit Amendment Bill Signed

National Credit Bill Now Signed

The rumours were true and it seems that President Zuma has indeed put pen to paper and an official announcement has been made that the National Credit Amendment Bill has now been signed.

Amendments Set To Improve Debt Counselling

Minister of the Department of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies has said that the amendments to the National Credit Act “will improve the effectiveness of Debt Counselling, Debt review and the work of Payment Distribution Agencies“.

He also laid a lot of blame for the current situation in South Africa where half the credit active consumers are not able to pay their accounts timeously. He said that it is “an obligation of government to protect vulnerable consumers against unscrupulous practices“.

Affordability Guidelines To Come

The Bill empowers the Minister to prescribe affordability assessment regulations. These affordability assessment regulations will include rules relating to discretionary income and determine the buffer%  in regard to how much income should not be taken into account (or left available) when conducting affordability assessments. This will hopefully prevent possible reckless credit granting as most credit providers have in the past granted credit to the maximum of the consumer’s income,”leaving the consumer with not much income for other things”, said Minister Davies.
Davies added that the NCR & DTI will be able to crack down on illegal lenders as as of now all lenders are required by Law to register with the National Credit Regulator.”The NCAB requires that all credit providers must be registered, irrespective of the threshold or number of credit agreements. However, it is proposed that the requirements for registration and fees payable should be less for smaller lenders in recognition of their size…”

The last step is for the Bill in it’s final format to be published in the Government Gazette this week which will mean that it is now law.