No abstract

Humpty dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again! ** ** Opie and Opie Nursery Rhymes 213-215.

Responsible lending has become a very pertinent issue on the agenda of credit regulators across the globe who seek to combat the causes of consumer over-indebtedness. In this context the use of "pre-agreement assessment" as a tool to filter out those instances where, based on a consumer's creditworthiness or ability to repay, credit should not be granted to such a consumer, is a feature common to the lending regimes of various jurisdictions. This contribution consists of two parts: Part 1 provides a critical discussion of the reckless credit provisions of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005. Part 2 details the responsible lending measures contained in the EU Consumer Credit Directive and the EU Mortgage Credit Directive and provides an appraisal of the responsible lending measures introduced by Belgium, being a jurisdiction that has always been very pro-active in the context of consumer credit protection.

The National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (hereinafter the “NCA” or “Act”) is an innovative but challenging piece of legislation. It provides for various novel approaches to debt enforcement in respect of credit agreements and has introduced debt-relief measures in respect of over-indebtedness and reckless credit that are new to South African consumer credit legislation. It is thus inevitable that in applying the provisions of the Act various issues will arise that will require interpretation and, therefore, intense scrutiny. In the recent judgment of BMW Financial Services (SA) (Pty) Ltd v Donkin, Wallis J was required to scrutinize various aspects relating to debt review and debt enforcement in order to decide the consumer’s fate as influenced by the NCA (66; and see also s 130(1)(a)).

Responsible lending has become a very pertinent issue on the agenda of credit regulators across the globe who seek to combat the causes of consumer over-indebtedness. In this context the use of "pre-agreement assessment" as a tool to filter out those instances where, based on a consumer's creditworthiness or ability to repay, credit should not be granted to such a consumer, is a feature common to the lending regimes of various jurisdictions. This contribution consists of two parts: Part 1 provides a critical discussion of the reckless credit provisions of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005. Part 2 details the responsible lending measures contained in the EU Consumer Credit Directive and the EU Mortgage Credit Directive and provides an appraisal of the responsible lending measures introduced by Belgium, being a jurisdiction that has always been very pro-active in the context of consumer credit protection.