An estimated 7 million “buy now pay later” users will soon see new laws introduced by the federal government that aims to better protect them against financial abuse.
A new Treasury paper released by Financial Service Minister Stephen Jones today suggests buy now pay later players could soon be subject to the same laws as credit card providers, as “unaffordable or inappropriate lending practices are contributing to financial stress and hardship, and other types of consumer harm”.
The paper said there were 7 million active buy now pay later accounts in the 2021-22 financial year resulting in $16 billion in transactions, an increase of almost 37 per cent on the previous financial year.
The Treasury paper makes it clear self-regulation, without some controls, is no longer an option.
It raises a range of issues, noting there’s been reports of “poor complaints handling processes” and that “the lack of hardship assistance for consumers leads to delayed or unsatisfactory remediation”.
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