What we do
We assist businesses in securing an Australian Credit Licence or a New Zealand Financial Advice Provider Licence, ensuring compliance with regulatory obligations and equipping your representatives with the necessary training and competence.
Our services include developing written plans that outline arrangements and systems to meet your general conduct obligations or reviewing and updating your existing compliance framework to keep it robust and up to date.
We can handle document lodgements with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) or the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in New Zealand, including the submission of annual compliance certificates. In Australia, we also support maintaining the ASIC public register, Internal Dispute Resolution Reporting, and ASIC levy submissions.
We provide end-to-end support during the complaints process, from Internal Dispute Resolution to AFCA, and assist with the effective management of your Professional Indemnity Insurance.
Our team can ensure your website aligns with compliance standards and industry best practices. Additionally, we help implement onboarding and offboarding processes, business continuity and data breach response plans, internal complaints management procedures, and ensure your privacy compliance processes are current.
Broker support
If you provide regulated financial advice (consumer credit contracts) to retail clients you will either need a FAP licence, or to operate under another FAP’s licence.
We offer support in securing your own licence through video conferencing. Our guidance includes helping you understand the necessary steps to take before applying, clarifying licence classes and associated fees, implementing the required documented arrangements, and providing training for Advisers to ensure compliance and preparedness.
Credit Licensing
As a credit licensee, you must adhere to general conduct obligations aimed at ensuring your credit business is managed effectively. These include:
- Making sure your representatives are competent in conducting credit activities.
- Ensuring both you and your representatives comply with credit legislation.
- Maintaining sufficient resources and effective risk management systems.
- Establishing appropriate arrangements and systems to ensure compliance and demonstrate how you meet these requirements.
This is not an exhaustive list of your responsibilities.
We are here to guide you through the application process, offering the tools, training, and resources needed to help you fulfill these obligations with confidence.
Managing the ASIC Regulatory Portal
We can assist with lodging the necessary forms on the ASIC public register through their Edge Portal or in the regulatory portal, ensuring submissions are made accurately and on time, giving you peace of mind.
Our support includes tasks such as appointing or ceasing Credit Representatives, updating details, lodging IDR reports, and submitting ASIC levies—services we regularly provide to many of our clients. Alternatively, we can offer guidance, support, and training to help you complete the forms and manage information within the ASIC portals effectively.
NCCP Compliance
ACL holders must establish adequate arrangements and systems to ensure both they and their representatives comply with credit legislation. This includes having a written plan that outlines the arrangements and systems for fulfilling general conduct obligations, as well as maintaining robust risk management systems.
Implementing effective measures will support your team in understanding their responsibilities, streamline training processes, and minimise the risk of compliance breaches.
We can also assist in ensuring your compliance processes remain up to date with changes to the Privacy Act.
Website Compliance
There are specific disclosure requirements under the Corporations Act, the NCCP Act, the Privacy Principles, and an obligation to promote your AFCA membership.
ASIC expects you to provide clear, accurate, and balanced information when promoting credit products and services. It’s important to avoid using terms or phrases in ways that deviate from their ordinary meaning as commonly understood by consumers. Particular care should be taken with phrases like “best” or “cheapest,” as these cannot be objectively verified.
We are here to guide you through this complexity, offering tailored solutions and support to help you meet your compliance obligations and align with industry standards.
Audits & Reviews
ASIC imposes an ongoing responsibility on Licensees to monitor and oversee their representatives to ensure compliance with credit legislation. At Credit Comply, we view issues identified during audits as valuable opportunities for team training and development.
Additionally, Licensees are required to maintain detailed records of their monitoring and supervisory activities to support information sharing under the new ASIC reference checking protocol. We can assist you to design and implement your program.
For certain system users, we can conduct large-scale, data-driven audits. These audits help ensure compliance with disclosure and responsible lending obligations, assess the quality of preliminary assessments, and provide targeted feedback and coaching.
Risk Management
Australian Credit Licensees must maintain adequate risk management systems to address NCCP risks as part of their licensing obligations. However, your business also encounters other types of risks that require attention.
Effective risk management ensures that potential threats to your business are identified, assessed, controlled, and regularly reviewed.
We assist in recognising the specific risks your business may face, help implement control measures to address those risks, and ensure they are reviewed periodically to remain current, practical, and effective.
The process begins with identifying and evaluating risks, followed by developing strategies to minimise their likelihood and planning how to respond if they do occur. Proper risk management provides reassurance that risks are clearly identified, assigned to responsible parties, reviewed regularly, and managed with well-defined mechanisms