Australian Credit Licence (“ACL”) holders have a variety of obligations which must be documented and adhered to in order to ensure compliance with the law. Many of these obligations can often be overlooked during the course of running a business.

• Implement a Compliance Program – Sophie Grace can assist with drafting the required compliance documents for your Australian Credit Licence. Our standard compliance program includes a compliance calendar of obligations so you can see all important dates in one place.
• Ensure your Compliance Documents are up to date – many changes can impact whether your compliance documents are current, including changes to your business and changes to the law. Compliance documents should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they remain current and adequately reflect your business. Sophie Grace can assist with your regular compliance program review to make updates to reflect new or changed requirements.
• Implement regular compliance meetings – a compliance committee should comprise of a group of people within your organisation who have responsibility for the credit licence’s functions – including the Directors and Responsible Managers. Meetings should occur on a regular basis to discuss the compliance obligations of the credit licence and whether they have been met.
• Appoint a Compliance Officer –someone within your business should have responsibility for compliance. The Compliance Officer should have the appropriate level of seniority and competence to complete the role.
• Track and record complaints – Australian Credit Licence holders must have adequate internal dispute resolution procedures to ensure complaints are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner. Sophie Grace can assist in implementing and documenting the appropriate procedures.
• Complaints – all credit licence holders are required to be a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), the ASIC approved External Resolution Dispute Scheme.
• Managing conflicts of interest – identifying conflicts of interest and recording them in a register is an important step in managing conflicts. Sophie Grace has a template register which is part of our suite of compliance documents available for purchase.
• Review your marketing material – most Australian Credit Licence holders issue marketing or promotional material as part of their business operations. All material should be in line with ASIC’s guidelines and relevant legislation. Sophie Grace can assist credit licence holders to meet their obligations by reviewing marketing material before it is released.
• Complete CPD training – Responsible Managers and representatives involved in the provision of credit services to clients must ensure they complete the ongoing CPD training each year.
• Update your training registers – all training completed by Responsible Managers and other representatives should be recorded in a training register. Sophie Grace has a template registerwhich is part of our suite of compliance documents available for purchase.
• Complete your Annual Compliance Certificate – Sophie Grace can assist credit licence holders complete their Annual Compliance Certificate to help ensure it is completed accurately and lodged on time.
• Monitor service providers – most credit licence holders outsource a number of functions and these service providers should be monitored and reviewed for their performance on a regular basis. Sophie Grace can assist Australian Credit Licence holders to implement a formal system for monitoring service providers.
• Manage risk – credit licence holders are required to have adequate resources and procedures to manage the risks associated with their operations. Sophie Grace can assist licence holders to implement and document appropriate risk management procedures.
• Industry Funding Levy – credit licence holders are required to submit to ASIC the organisation’s business activity metrics on an annual basis. From these metrics, ASIC will be able to calculate the payable fee for each organisation for the previous financial year.
• Document breaches – Sophie Grace can assist Australian Credit Licence holders to document their breach reporting policies and ensure breaches are identified, rectified and where required, reported to ASIC in a timely manner.
• Have adequate compensation arrangements – Australian Credit Licence holders who don’t fall under an exemption in the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, need to hold Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance. Some licence holders have an exemption in place for PI insurance, and must ensure they continue to meet the terms stipulated by ASIC to maintain that exemption.
• Design and Distribution Obligations (“DDO”) –  Issuers and Distributors of credit products are required to have a consumer-centric approach to designing and distributing products to consumers. Requirements include documentation to capture product governance arrangements initially and over the lifecycle of the product.

Sophie Grace provides compliance assistance to Credit licensees to ensure they are meeting their regulatory requirements.

Sophie Grace assists all types of credit businesses including but not limited to:

• loan/credit issuers (whether small or large);
• loan arrangers (brokers);
• loan advisers;
• debt collectors; and
• debt management service providers.