If you or your company is a provider of consumer credit (lender) or a mobile trader, and you are not already licenced or authorised by the Financial Market Authority or Reserve Bank of New Zealand, you must be certified under Part 5A of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCF Act) by the Commerce Commission.
To get certification you must satisfy us that you (if you are a sole trader) or your directors and senior managers (if you are a company) are fit and proper persons to hold your positions – financially sound, honest, reputable, reliable and competent to do the job.
Certification became compulsory from 1 October 2021 as part of changes to the CCCF Act. From this date, you must be both certified by the Commission and registered on the Financial Service Provider Register (FSPR) to provide lending or mobile trading services.
If you are already registered on the FSPR as at 30 September, you do not need to be certified until the date of your next FSPR annual confirmation. For example, if your annual confirmation month is April, you will need to be certified by 30 April 2022.
We recommend you apply for certification at least 2 months before the date that your certification is due. If you apply to us for certification more than 2 months prior to the date your certification is due, you can legally continue to trade if we have not made a decision by that date (unless you have failed to respond to an information request from us).
You can apply for certification through the “Maintain Financial Services” tab on your FSPR dashboard. When you select either the ‘Creditor under a credit contract – Consumer credit contract’ or ‘Creditor under a credit contract – Mobile trader’ service, you will be sent an email which sets out how you can pay the required fee(s) and will include the forms you need to complete.
The aim of certification is to set a high standard of personal and professional integrity for those involved in providing a lending or mobile trading service. You can find background information on the Fit and Proper Person consultation process on our website.
We have developed guidance which explains the criteria for determining whether someone is fit and proper to perform their role.
