Credit Bureau Association: Bureau Business Edition No. 3

 

 

Greetings members! Welcome to our second newsletter of 2016 – a year that is positively flying past already. At the Credit Bureau Association, we've been busy, and we'd like to take the opportunity presented by this newsletter to share some of the details of our projects and pursuits with you.  As usual, we invite you to you get in touch and let us know what you are up to, so we can share your exciting developments and achievements with the broader CBA community.

 

What's been keeping us busy As you know, the candidates for the office of the Information Regulator have been shortlisted. In preparation, the CBA draft code is being vetted by an information specialist so that we can apply for accreditation of our code as soon as the regulator is appointed. We are also ensuring alignment with SACRRA to ensure that there is a synergy from an industry perspective. With regard to the new maintenance information regulations, the CBA has been working with the Department of Justice to ensure that there is alignment between the requirements in Regulation 17 of the National Credit Act (NCA) and that of the Maintenance Act and its new regulations. In our last newsletter we were excited to announce the joining of new member, VeriCred Credit Bureau, to the association. Since then, Vericred has applied to SACRRA to take on consumer credit information.  We will keep you updated. Community and media This year has seen the continuation of our great partnership with the National Credit Regulator (NCR) around the "Know your credit status" campaign. Not only have the NCR and bureaus been able to offer reports and information at a number of government departments since late last year, but now we are gearing up for the public leg of the 2016 campaign. This will see us collaborate on a youth-focused campaign, rolling out at universities and public areas in close proximity to universities across Gauteng to reach the youth and the academic sector. Another important partner in our public education drive is UNISA. After a fortuitous meeting in 2015, the Department of Mercantile Law at UNISA and the CBA have been working together on a number of interventions aimed at staff and students, including a series of radio interviews on campus radio. This is culminating in a Credit Information Day to be held at UNISA main campus on 20 June. We are very thankful that so many of our members and strategic industry partners (such as the Credit Ombud and DTI) will be taking part in this open day that is aimed squarely at empowering and educating consumers. We continue to reach out to digital and traditional media to share an empowering message about credit management and credit reports with the wider populace. We've recently been featured in several of the Caxton community newspapers and Essentials magazine's website, among others.

Heads up The new CBA constitution has been revised, adopted and published on the CBA website where it is available for download on the membership page. The NCR subcommittee dealing with data sharing under Reg 19(13) is being established under the Credit Industry Forum (CIF). We look forward to engaging with the industry and the NCR in this regard.     Featured in

 

 

Credit Burea Association ADDRESS: St Georges Building The Oval Office Park  1 Meadowbrook Lane Bryanston  Gauteng  2021  South Africa CONTACT: Phone: +27 11 463 8218 Fax: 086 271 7741 Email: enquiries@cba.co.za Media: prcomms@cba.co.za OFFICE HOURS Monday - Friday: 09h00 to 16h30

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Credit and the Youth: Podcast of Unisa Radio Broadcast of 30 May 2016

On 30 May 2016 the Community Engagement Project on the Responsible Use of Credit (in the Department of Mercantile Law) had a discussion on certain credit matters that influence the youth.  The discussion was hosted on Unisa Radio. Mpho Ramapala from the National Credit Regulator and Jeannine Naude-Viljoen from the Credit Bureau Association took part in the discussion.

 

To list to the podcasted discussion, open the following link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B01WIh-UaoHFN3hmS3ZhRE95Q28

 

To listen to Unisa Radio click on  http://radio.unisa.ac.za or visit Unisa Radio’s Facebook profile at www.facebook.com/unisaradio or their Twitter profile at www.twitter.com/unisaradio.

 

 

 

 

Invitation: Consumer Credit Issues: Where do I Turn to for Assistance?

 

Credit and the Youth

 

Credit and the youth - Monday, 30 May 2016

 

 

Credit Day: Consumer Credit issues: where do I turn to for assistance?

Department of Mercantile Law

Consumer Credit issues: where do I turn to for assistance?

The  Community  Engagement  Project on the Responsible Use of Credit

invites you  to an event  where you will be able to discuss your credit issues with stakeholders in the credit industry

 

 

Date        :       20 June 2016

Time        :       09h00-13h00

Venue      :       Unisa main campus: foyer of the OR Tambo Building.

 

You are welcome to contact Michel Koekemoer at koekemmmm@unisa.ac.za  or (012) 429-2916 if you have any questions about the event.

 

The following stakeholders have been invited to answer your credit related questions:

 

The Credit Bureau Association.

The Credit Ombud;

The National Credit Regulator; and

The Department of Trade and Industry.

 

Short presentations on burning credit issues will also be made by our stakeholders during the course of the day.

 

 

Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa: Press statement - Consitutional Court upholds debtor's rights

 

SERI’s PRESS STATEMENT

21 APRIL 2016

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT UPHOLDS DEBTORS’ RIGHTS

The Constitutional Court today threw a lifeline to distressed credit consumers. It held that a consumer who falls into arrears with her loan repayments can reinstate her credit agreement by bringing her account up-to-date, even after a bank has obtained judgment for the full amount she borrowed.

 

The Court was dealing with the case of Nomsa Nkata, who fell into arrears with her mortgage bond with First Rand Bank. After Ms. Nkata missed some payments on her bond, FRB sued her and obtained a judgment for the full value of her debt and an order allowing it to sell Ms. Nkata’s house. Ms. Nkata then brought her account up-to-date, but she did not pay any default charges or FRB’s enforcement costs. FRB then sold her house. The Constitutional Court had to decide whether Ms. Nkata, by paying all her arrears, “reinstated” her agreement within the meaning of section 129 (3). If she had, the sale of her house was illegal.

 

Section 129 (3) allows a credit consumer who has fallen into arrears to reinstate her credit agreement without paying back the full debt. The consumer need only pay the amount of her arrears, default charges and the reasonable costs of enforcing the loan agreement. This must be done before any judgment obtained on the court had been executed, whether by the sale of a consumer’s property, or otherwise.

 

FRB argued that section 129 (3) was not engaged, because Ms. Nkata did not give the bank notice of her intention to reinstate the agreement, she did not pay its enforcement costs and it had executed the judgment by the time Ms. Nkata paid her arrears.

 

SERI, admitted as a friend of the court, argued that reinstatement of a credit agreement does not depend on a consumer giving notice of his or her intention to do so. This would be unfair, because most consumers will have no idea that they have the right to reinstate the agreement. Simply paying the arrears is enough. Once the arrears are paid, the credit agreement is reinstated by operation of law.

SERI also argued that it did not matter that Ms. Nkata did not pay FRB’s enforcement costs, because these had not been quantified or demanded by the bank. Only the bank will know what its enforcement costs are. A consumer should not be prevented from reinstating her agreement because the bank has not bothered to quantify and demand its costs.

Finally SERI argued that FRB’s judgment had not been executed by the time Ms. Nkata paid her arrears. FRB said that a judgment is executed once it has issued a warrant of execution, which is the first step in organising a sale. SERI argued that execution only takes place once the property is sold, and the purchase price is paid. In Ms. Nkata’s case, that had not happened at the time she had paid her arrears.

 

The majority of the Court agreed with all of SERI’s submissions. Deputy Chief Justice Moseneke held that section 129 (3) of the National Credit Act must be interpreted in favour of the values of fairness and equality. This meant that a consumer could not be expected to give notice of an intention to exercise a right she does not know she has; that the bank should not be able to resist reinstatement for non-payment of costs it had not quantified; and that a consumer should be able to revive her credit agreement right up until someone else has bought and paid for the property on which the agreement is secured.

 

The Court found that Ms. Nkata’s loan agreement had been reinstated, and set aside the sale of her home.

Keamogetswe Thobakgale, a SERI attorney, said: “The Court today upheld the importance of fair-dealing between very powerful banks and distressed consumers of credit. The Court confirmed both that consumers should be given the full benefit of legislation meant to protect them, and that a bank cannot rely on its own failure to demand payment of amounts it says are owed, to avoid the operation of the law.”

 

Advocates Stuart Wilson, Irene de Vos, and Attorney Keamogetswe Thobakgale represented SERI in the Constitutional Court.

Contact details: Keamogetswe Thobakgale, SERI Attorney 078 685 5508 / 011 356 5866/ kea@seri-sa.org.