Updates enhance transparency over compliance of banks and reporting bodies with privacy obligations
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has announced that it has registered a new Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code 2024 (Version 3.0), effective this month.
The new Credit Reporting Code seeks to enhance privacy protections for Australians’ credit information, to better clarify the obligations of industry, and to safeguard the rights and interests of individuals, according to the OAIC’s media release.
“It is critical that credit information is handled with care and the right balance is struck between credit providers’ need to access credit information and making sure Australians’ privacy is protected,” said Carly Kind, Australia’s privacy commissioner, in a media release.
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“The enhancements provided by the new Credit Reporting Code will help industry to meet their obligations and, in doing so, increase the trust and confidence of the Australian community in how their information is being used and disclosed,” Kind added in the media release.
Expected benefits
The updated legislation aims to improve materials explaining how the credit rules apply and to boost support for fraud victims by allowing the extension of a ban on an individual’s credit report with minimal evidence.
The new legislation also seeks to put in place a free alert system for fraud victims who have placed such a ban to notify them if anyone has tried to request credit during the ban period, as well as to permit the correction in a single request of multiple pieces of incorrect information on a person’s credit report caused by a fraud event.
The updates also aim to recognise domestic abuse as a circumstance beyond an individual’s control that can lead to corrections needed in their report and to improve transparency over the compliance of credit reporting bodies and banks with their privacy obligations.
With the new legislation, the OAIC expects industry to benefit from the improved usability of the Credit Reporting Code and the explanatory materials, improvements to the explanatory statement, more information on the definition of a reporting “month,” adjustments to the “account close” date definition, and transitional periods to ensure that there is time to update systems before compliance is required.
“A well-functioning credit reporting system is fundamental to the Australian economy, especially as the credit landscape expands, and the new Credit Reporting Code will help to support this,” said Kind in the media release.
The legislative updates implement 15 proposals from the OAIC’s 2021 independent review of the Credit Reporting Code. Some proposals will be considered in the ongoing review of Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988, the media release said.