Advocacy in action: Credit reporting under review and the Consumer Data Right picks up steam

A submission to the independent review of credit reporting and progress to harness to the benefits of the Consumer Data Right are two highlights of our recent advocacy on your behalf.

Australia’s Credit Reporting Framework review to improve consumer outcomes

Access to credit reporting is vital for our members, so we’ve been active in the independent review of the credit reporting framework. In our submission to the review, we highlighted that:

• credit reporting is integral to providing you with comprehensive information about your clients’ financial position, to help you meet responsible lending and mortgage broker best interests duty obligations
• improving information availability and quality across all credit reporting bureaus will improve timely access to credit for your clients
• greater consumer understanding of credit reporting overall will help Australians make better informed financial decisions.

Broker use cases at the top of the list for the Consumer Data Right (CDR)

Mortgage brokers are considered ‘trusted advisors’ within the CDR framework and, according to the latest edition of Australian Open Banking Ecosystem Map and Report from FinTech Australia, are among the top use cases for using CDR to access client data.

With Treasury considering CDR’s expansion into non-bank lending and the regulation of screen scraping technologies, we’ve been able to connect our members with Treasury so they can hear directly from brokers on the difference CDR can make when it comes to improving the process for Australians seeking a home loan.

Naveen Ahluwalia, MFAA Executive, Policy and Legal also facilitated a panel at the recent CDR Summit that showcased how brokers can leverage CDR data effectively.

Want to know more about the Consumer Data Right?

Find out what Open Banking and the Consumer Data Right (CDR) is in this video featuring Renee Blethyn from NextGen and Naveen Ahluwalia, MFAA Executive Policy and Legal.

They discuss how Open Banking/CDR will help brokers to increase efficiency in your business and provide a safer and more comprehensive way for your clients to share their information with you.

Watch now

Other advocacy matters

• The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort launched on 2 April and under its funding model, it will be issuing its annual invoice to licensees this month.
  Our focus is on ensuring the cost burden on our members is reasonable and proportionate, and we continue to monitor the Scheme’s funding priorities.
• With the aim of ensuring that homebuyers will be able to access the Government’s Help to Buy Scheme when they choose to use a broker we have participated in a number of consultations and conversations with representatives in Treasury and Housing Australia.
• We know from speaking to our members that the ease of getting Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) accounts and holding multiple BNPL accounts may be a barrier to obtaining a home loan easily. We support the legislation that is currently before Parliament to recognise BNPL as credit products and while it addressed some of our recommendations made in previous submissions, we will continue to advocate for further consumer education and for BNPL to be included in comprehensive credit reporting.

As always, you can read all our submissions.