Australia’s government moved to regulate buy now, pay later finance firms under credit laws, drawing the line on a months-long process aimed at tightening requirements on the maturing industry.
Firms will need to adhere to responsible lending obligations and hold Australian credit licenses, according to Stephen Jones, the nation’s minister for financial services. They’ll also face a range of minimum standards on conduct and products.
Buy now, pay later has “provided a valuable source of competitive pressure on traditional credit products, such as credit cards or payday loans,” he said in text of a speech Monday. “But with those opportunities have come new and growing dangers to consumers, which up until now have been largely unregulated and unchecked.”