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NCR Push Statistical Return Submission Dates

Companies and individuals who are registered with the National Credit Regulator (NCR) are required to submit regular reports to the NCR about their clients and those consumers who approach them for help.

Credit Providers have to submit a Form 39 report. Debt Counsellors have to submit a Form 42 Report, Insurers have to hand in a Form 45 and Credit Bureaus have to hand in a Form 44 report. These reports are handed in every 3 months throughout the year so that the NCR can produce statistics.

Regulation 3

The NCR are making use of NCA Regulation 3 to extend the time requirements for when these reports need to be submitted. They have given credit bureaus, credit providers and Debt Counsellors an extension of a somewhat undefined period which includes the “lockdown” and then 45 days. The 45 days would run from the end of the lockdown (at this point).

No One At The Office

Since the national Lockdown began the NCR had to send staff home and were not able to set up remote work before (or since) to enable staff to carry on work. This greatly impacts on the NCR’s ability to process the submitted figures that are coming in so long. They also realise that many smaller credit providers also faced similar interruptions in the ability to go into the office and access computers on site to draw these reports.

Most of the Banks and Debt Counselling practices were able to make the transition to some sort of work from home-based operations in the days leading up to the National Lockdown. Indeed, the largest number of Debt Counsellors in the country have always run small home-based operations (though they service even less than 10% of the countries debt review clients). Larger practices were, for the most part, able to swiftly get IT solutions in place to enable them to work remotely and have been busy helping consumers throughout the crisis.

The NCR offices being closed means they are not able to currently perform their usual activities and will no doubt take some time to get back up to full speed as the lockdown eases.

You Can If You Want To

There is no ban on submitting your statistics if you wish within the usual timelines. Those who are able to do so are encouraged to do so as per the usual timeline requirements. The good news is that if you are not able to then you will not face any disciplinary fines or possible deregistration by the NCR.

Quarter 1 2020 Jan to end March (normal) Due Date:

15 May 2020

Annual Fees Required Soon

The next issue that will soon face the industry and the NCR is annual registration fees required from registrants and the provision of certificates by the NCR for use by Debt Counsellors and credit providers at court. These documents are needed to ensure compliance with NCR guidelines, monitoring and for use at court.

In the face of the lockdown progressing at various levels across the country which will disrupt matters for months to come it is likely that the NCR will provide further clarity on this issue via circulars in the weeks to come.

Download the Circular

If you would like a copy of the NCR Circular regarding the extension of submission dates then you can download the circular here:

NCR Circular 04 of 2020 Extension of quarterly stats submission