Q: Who must be certified?

A: If you or your company is a provider of consumer credit (lender) or a mobile trader, you must be certified under Part 5A of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCF Act) by the Commerce Commission (Commission).

To gain certification, sole traders, and directors and senior managers of companies and other trading entities, must satisfy the Commission that they are fit and proper persons to hold their positions. The Commission must be satisfied that these individuals are financially sound, honest, reputable, reliable and competent to perform their role.

You are a lender if:

  • you have a contract which allows a person to defer payment of a debt, incur a debt and defer payment, or to purchase goods or services and defer payment
  • the contract allows you to charge interest or credit fees or take a security interest
  • the borrower is a natural person who will use or intends to use the credit wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household purposes and you are
  • in the business of providing credit – although lending does not have to be your only business or main business
  • in the practice of providing credit as part of your business (such as a car dealer)
  • entering into credit contracts on behalf of someone else.

You are a mobile trader if:

  • in person and not at fixed premises, you offer or agree to supply consumer goods to someone under a credit sale, or a company associated with you provides finance to buy goods under a credit sale. A credit sale is a sale of goods or services where payment of the price is wholly or partly deferred. For example, if a person buys a laptop from your truck on July 1st and agrees to pay it off at $20 per week, then it is a credit sale.

Q: How do I apply to be certified?

A: You can apply through the ‘Maintain Financial Services’ tab on your Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR) dashboard by selecting ‘consumer credit contract’ or ‘mobile trader’ as a service you wish to provide. Selecting one of these will trigger the certification process and an email will be sent informing you of how you can make the required payment and the forms you will need to complete.


Q: When do I need to apply to be certified?

A: Certification becomes compulsory from 1 October 2021 however, timing of certification will vary depending on whether you are already registered on the FSPR on 30 September 2021.

If you are already registered as at 30 September 2021, you do not need to be certified until the date of your next annual confirmation. For example, if your annual confirmation month is March, you will need to be certified by March 2022. To find your annual confirmation filing date, look under the ‘General details’ section of your FSPR dashboard.


Q: When is my certification due date?

A: If you are already registered on the FSPR as at 30 September 2021, then your certification due date is the end day of your annual confirmation month. For example, if your annual confirmation month is March, you will need to be certified by 31 March 2022.

If you are an existing mobile trader who is registering for the first time, then your certification due date is 1 October 2021.

If you are registering on the FSPR for the first time after 30 September 2021, then you will not have a certification due date. You will not be able to legally offer lending or mobile trading services until you have been certified.


Q: Can I keep trading whilst my application is being processed?

A: If you apply for certification at least 2 months before your certification due date, you can still legally continue offering lending or mobile trading services after that date if we have not yet made a decision (the exception being if we asked you for information to help us assess your certification and you have failed to respond within 20 working days).


Q: What happens if I apply for certification less than 2 months before my certification due date?

A: We will aim to process all applications as quickly as we can in order to cause the least amount of business disruption. However, if we have not made a decision by your certification due date, then you must not enter into any new contracts or vary any existing ones until you have been certified.


Q: What happens if I am a new lender that will be registering on the FSPR for the first time on or after 1 October 2021?

A: If you are not already registered on the FSPR on or after 1 October 2021, you will need to be both certified and registered as a financial service provider before you can provide consumer credit or mobile trading services.


Q: What happens if I am an existing mobile trader?

If you are currently providing mobile trading services and you are not registered on the FSPR, and you have not applied 2 months prior to 1 October 2021, then you need to apply for certification immediately. If we are unable to process your application prior to 1 October 2021, then you must stop providing mobile trading services until you are certified.


Q: What happens if am a mobile trader and provider of consumer credit?

A: You will need to select both services when you apply on the FSPR but you will only need to pay for one service.


Q: How much does it cost to be certified?

A: The processing fee that the Commission charges when people apply for fit and proper certification is $1055 (excluding GST) per person per entity and certification generally lasts for 5 years. The fee works out to be $211 annually and is due to be reviewed in June 2024. In the same way that the government made the legislative changes, they also came up with this fee which is set out in the Credit Contracts Consumer Finance (Certification) Amendment Regulations 2021. The way in which the fee is calculated means that the Commission will recover the costs associated with reviewing each application (including the cost of staff, systems and overheads) however, the Commission does not make a profit from charging this fee.


Q: Is the fee refundable?

A: The fee is non-refundable, even if you withdraw your application or we decline your application. We will not begin to process your application until the fee has been paid.


Q: How long does certification last for?

A: Generally certification lasts for 5 years however, we may impose a shorter certification period under conditions if appropriate.


Q: Can I access the application form before I apply for certification?

A: The application form is sent out with payment instructions when you apply for certification however, a sample version is available on our website.


Q: How do I know if I am a ‘senior manager’?

A: A senior manager is a person other than a director whose position allows him or her to exercise significant influence over the way a business is managed or administered. Who is a senior manager depends on the particular circumstances of your business, but a senior manager may be someone who implements and has input into the way the board exercises its powers and is engaged in decision making, regardless of whether they make the final decision.


Q: What happens if I am the director of or senior manager at multiple entities?

A: You will need to apply for certification for each entity and you will need to pay the certification fee each time.


Q: What happens if I resign from my role as director or senior manager?

A: If you apply for certification and then resign, you will not get a refund of the fee you have paid. If you start a new role as a director or senior manager of another entity, you will need to apply for certification with that entity and pay a new processing fee.

You will also need to notify the Commission of any change of circumstances. These changes are listed in our Fit and Proper Person Guidance.


Q: What happens if my application is declined?

A: If we intend to decline your application, we will notify you and explain why and give you at least 10 working days to respond with written submissions. We will consider your submission when making our final decision. If we refuse your application for certification, we will let you know the decision and why we reached it. You can appeal to the District Court if you do not agree with our decision to refuse your application.

Because you need to be certified to be registered on the FSPR, non-certification will lead to deregistration of your consumer credit and/or mobile trader service. At this point you will no longer be able to offer consumer credit or mobile trader services. The Commission accepts that you may need to take some reasonable steps to comply with these requirements and to ensure that the interests of existing borrowers are met.


Q: The company I am a director or senior manager of is going to stop providing consumer credit. Do I still need to be certified?

A: Yes, you will need to be certified whilst there are any existing consumer credit contracts in place, even if you will not be entering into new consumer credit contracts after 1 October 2021.


Q: Can my certification be suspended?

A: We may suspend your certification while we investigate information about a material breach of a condition, or any information that leads us to believe any one of your directors or senior managers is no longer fit and proper to perform their role.

If we intend to suspend your application, we will notify you and explain why and give you at least 10 working days to respond with written submissions. We will consider your submission when making our final decision. If we suspend your certification, we will let you know the decision and why we reached it.

Because you need to be certified to be registered on the FSPR, non-certification will lead to deregistration of your consumer credit and/or mobile trader service. At this point you will no longer be able to offer consumer credit or mobile trader services. The Commission accepts that you may need to take some reasonable steps to comply with these requirements and to ensure that the interests of existing borrowers are met.


Q: Can my certification be cancelled?

A: We may cancel your certification if we confirm information about a material breach of a condition or information that leads us to believe any one of your directors or senior managers is no longer fit and proper to perform their role.

If we intend to cancel your application, we will notify you and explain why and give you at least 10 working days to respond with written submissions. We will consider your submission when making our final decision. If we cancel your certification, we will let you know the decision and why we reached it.

Because you need to be certified to be registered on the FSPR, non-certification will lead to deregistration of your consumer credit and/or mobile trader service. At this point you will no longer be able to offer consumer credit or mobile trader services. The Commission accepts that you may need to take some reasonable steps to comply with these requirements and to ensure that the interests of existing borrowers are met.


Q: Is anyone exempt from being certified?

A: Lenders or mobile traders may be exempt from certification if they are already licenced or authorised by the Financial Markets Authority or Reserve Bank of New Zealand. A list of the exempt services can be found in the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolutions) Act 2008.


Q: What happens if I don’t apply for certification?

A: There are serious consequences if the requirements of the certification regime are breached. The court may order you to pay up to $600,000 for a corporate entity or up to $200,000 for an individual.


For more information, please download and read our guidance.

For questions around technical and system issues, contact the FSPR Help Centre. You can also find helpful information about certification on FSPR's website.

For all other queries, contact certification@comcom.govt.nz.