Response to consultation on Buy Now Pay Later regulatory reforms

The Economic Abuse Reference Group (EARG) welcomes the release of the Exposure Draft Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024: Buy Now Pay Later (the Bill) and the Exposure Draft National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Low Cost Credit) Regulations 2024 (the Regulations).

We support the Government’s steps towards regulating Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) as a form of credit.

We welcome the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed BNPL regulatory reforms (collectively, the proposed laws).

Given the EARG’s expertise in economic abuse, this submission will focus on improvements to the proposed laws that would minimize opportunities for economic abuse and fraud and better protect customers experiencing family violence.

In particular, we urge the Government to consider mandating income verification and to remove the rebuttable presumption that BNPL products under $2000 meet the customer’s requirements and objectives.

These changes are critical for preventing BNPL products from being misused to perpetrate economic abuse and fraud.