Tuesday, August 13. One of Australia’s largest debt collectors – Lion Finance (a subsidiary of ASX-listed Collection House Ltd) – turns to bankruptcy procedures to collect consumer debts far more often than its rivals, according to a new report. Who is making Australians bankrupt? released today by Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) and Financial Rights [ More ]
Tuesday, 13 August 2019 The Financial Rights Legal Centre (Financial Rights) and Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) have called for the Government to amend responsible lending laws to ensure that lenders make reasonable inquiries and verify borrowers’ actual financial situation. This follows a decision by the Federal Court to dismiss Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) responsible lending case [ More ]
The Financial Rights Legal Centre (Financial Rights) has expressed concerns about the Government’s plans to amend the Privacy Act to allow financial hardship information to appear on customers’ credit reports. (1) The Attorney-General made the announcement today to support the Government’s intention to introduce mandatory comprehensive credit reporting. “These proposed changes to the Privacy Act will only discourage vulnerable customers [ More ]
The Financial Rights Legal Centre (Financial Rights) has welcomed the Government’s release of exposure draft legislation that extends the unfair contract term (UCT) regime to insurance contracts. (1) “Unfair contract term laws have for some time applied to most if not all contracts that Australian’s sign – except, that is, to insurance,” said Alexandra Kelly, Financial Rights’ Director of Casework. [ More ]
The Financial Rights Legal Centre (Financial Rights) has welcomed the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s (ASIC’s) announcement that they will consult on banning unsolicited phone sales of direct life insurance and Consumer Credit Insurance (CCI) sales practices.[1] Unsolicited direct life insurance is sold to consumers by life insurers or their sales partners, by outbound telemarketing or situations where consumers would [ More ]
