Namfisa consults on consumer credit

The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) has invited public to provide input in the consumer credit policy which would ultimately guide the development of a consumer credit bill in the country.In a statement released by the watchdog, Namfisa said the financial sector in Namibia has legislative limitations on the regulatory and supervisory framework governing agreements on consumer credit. The current legislation lacks robust provisions on effective consumer protection against unfair market practices.This is because the only credit extended under the scope of market conduct supervision, although not broad-based in consumer protection principles, is that extended by the banks and microlenders, Namfisa said.“Credit extended by retailers for example, is not supervised against unfair market conduct, although such loans are also financial products. As a result, there is a fragmentation in the regulation and oversight of credit, with limited impact on indebtedness of households and desired market conduct in general,” the statement read.According to Namfisa, there is a need to identify the ideal way of reforming a fragmented market conduct oversight function on credit, currently falling under the mandate of different legislation and institutions.“In view of these identified limitations in the current legal framework, it was deemed necessary to revamp the legislation that governs the provision of credit in Namibia,” Namfisa said.ObjectiveThe primary objective of the consumer credit policy is to identify existing legislative gaps in the relevant prevailing laws, and how the gaps should be addressed.It would also investigate the optimal institutional set-up suiting Namibia based on experiences from other countries.Lastly, the policy will set out clear principles that will guide the drafting of the legislation on consumer credit.Namfisa is leading a project together with representatives from the ministry of finance, the Bank of Namibia (BoN), the ministry of industrialisation and trade, the Financial Literacy Initiative (FLI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).The public is encouraged to submit their comments via the Comments Template on or before 31 July 2020. The policy document as well as the comment template is available to the public on Namfisa’s website www.namfisa.com.na/publications

Namfisa consults on consumer credit

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Namfisa consults on consumer credit

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