27 May 2020
The Australian Banking Association (ABA) supports an effective regulatory regime that provides consumers and small business with a strong level of protection from unfair contract terms (UCTs) in standard form contracts.
In our view, making UCTs illegal and attaching penalties will result in a more legalistic approach to contracting and an adversarial process with regulators. We believe that a supervisory focused enforcement approach by regulators can best deliver improved outcomes for small business.
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The ABA welcomes the Government’s establishment of the Deregulation Taskforce (Taskforce). The proposed reforms to modernise business communications have the potential to reduce business costs and reflect the way Australian consumers and businesses prefer to manage their financial affairs today. The ABA particularly welcomes the Taskforce’s whole-of-economy approach by working to improve technology neutrality across Commonwealth laws, and importantly – partnering with states and territories to explore opportunities to achieve national consistency.
The ABA has recommended a number of changes be made to the Bill enshrining verbal assurances already provided by the Department of Home Affairs.
The ABA also proposes early consultation with industry to ensure time and resources for compliance, and to ensure guidance as to what information the government may require from critical infrastructure entities and the nature of information sharing between government and critical infrastructure sectors.
The ABA supports the Government’s proposal to licence debt management and credit repair firms. We believe that all Australians should be afforded consistent consumer protections, no matter which credit or financial services provider they choose.
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