SA Credit Act a worldwide hit

Johannesburg - South Africa's National Credit Act (NCA) has become a hit with policy-makers around the globe as the international credit crisis tilts the world economy towards the worst recession since the 1930s.

A number of African and European countries are studying the act with the aim of hardening their own credit legislation and reining in reckless lending.

The ongoing credit turmoil, the architect of which is the world's financial powerhouse, the US, has laid bare to the global community how greedy and heedless lenders can ruin the world economy and its financial markets.

Around the world as much as $435bn has been lost by major banks and financial institutions that had invested heavily in the US's $1.3-trillion sub prime mortgages sector.

Sub prime lenders granted mortgage loans to risky, over-extended home buyers but when interest rates started to shoot up the sub prime market collapsed, choking off credit and sending famous Wall Street banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers to the graveyard.

Peter Setou, a senior manager at the National Credit Regulator (NCR), said this week in the light of the global credit crunch many African and European nations had been soliciting advice from South Africa to help them with strengthening their credit policies.

"There has been a lot of interest from mainly African and European countries wanting to study the act," said Setou. "For instance, we are currently assisting the Namibians to develop legislation similar to what we have."

He said the NCR had received delegations from Botswana, China, Mongolia and the European Coalition for Responsible Credit (ECRC) wanting to learn about the act.

On November 12 Setou will travel to London to address a two-day conference hosted by the ECRC, a powerful coalition of non-profit organisations whose main objective is to press western European governments to adopt legislation that encourages responsible credit granting. The NCR's global reach took it to Brazil this week, where its chief executive, Gabriel Davel, spoke about the NCA at the third Global Credit Reporting Conference.

"I think other countries are interested in the act because of what is happening internationally and how irresponsible lending contributed to it. We get a lot of invitations to address conferences all over the world," Setou said.

Experts agree that the sub prime crisis, the root cause of which was reckless lending, was worsened by weak regulation of the financial system in the US, the world's richest economy. But in South Africa the NCR is keeping a watchful eye on the local credit industry, which has an estimated value of more than R1.1 trillion.

After the introduction of the act in June last year car dealers and estate agents complained that the legislation was depressing sales as banks were approving fewer loans.

Part of the reason for the slowdown in credit extension was that the act had changed the credit approval process. In the past, consumers would qualify for home loans if their monthly repayments did not exceed 30% of their monthly salaries.

However, the new legislation made it mandatory for banks to take into account the consumer's total disposable income before approving a mortgage. The banks had to ensure that the borrowers could afford the loan by closely inspecting expenses against the entire disposable income.

Debt counselling

The act also introduced the concept of debt counselling for over extended borrowers to mitigate an increase in defaults. Experts say it is SA's shield against credit woes, such as the one plaguing the US.

"The South African banking system has effectively been insulated from the global financial crisis mainly as a result of the prevailing exchange control regulations," said First National Bank spokesperson Xolisa Vapi.

"Having said that, the act has had its benefits for us in that it has improved the way we look at a customer before granting credit.

"Whereas in the past we would have looked at creditworthiness, there is now more emphasis on the customer's cash flow to accurately determine the level of affordability to repay a loan," he added.

When he delivered the mini-budget statement last week Finance Minister Trevor Manuel praised the country's robustness in regulating the financial markets.

Watchdogs such as the Registrar of Banks, Errol Kruger, and the Financial Services Board - which regulates insurers, pension funds, and asset managers - are vital cogs in South Africa's regulatory system.

"The financial stability assessment conducted by the IMF and World Bank during April and May this year concluded that the financial system in South Africa is fundamentally sound and noted that our financial sector regulatory framework is sophisticated, modern and effective," said Manuel.

He said: "Banks have become increasingly inventive in channelling foreign savings to American consumers and firms. For example, the market for credit swaps through which bad debt has been passed onto pension funds and other investors grew from $100bn in 2000 to $62 trillion last year.

"This is just one of the financial innovations of the past decade that have contributed to the current destructive implosion of global financial markets."

City Press