Finance company to repay $945k
Current and former borrowers will receive credits and refunds totalling $945,334 after a finance company based in Whangarei signed a settlement agreement with the Commerce Commission.
The regulator started investigating Profile Finance Ltd after receiving a complaint, and it subsequently discovered that between June 2015 and November 2017 it didn’t provide all the key information to customers as laid down in the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA).
This included the borrower’s rights to seek loan changes due to unforeseen hardship, the consumer’s right to cancel, Profile Finance’s financial service-provider registration and dispute resolution details, complete and accurate details of security interests taken and information required in continuing disclosure statements.
In some contracts, the total amount of the payments included a $1.50 weekly administration fee, while the company entered into 2,119 affected loans during the relevant period.
Anna Rawlings, pictured, chairwoman of the Commerce Commission, says: “Profile Finance co-operated with our investigation and acknowledges it failed to properly disclose all required information in likely breach of the CCCFA during the relevant period. It has updated its standard-form disclosure statement and made corrective disclosure to borrowers.
“Failure to provide full and proper disclosure deprives borrowers of the ability to make informed decisions about borrowing money and what to do if they get into difficulty during the term of the loan. All lenders should periodically check they are complying with the clear disclosure requirements in the CCCFA.”
