Curbing Reckless and Predatory Lending: A Statutory Analysis of South Africa’s National Credit Act

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by Dr. Andrew D. Schmulow

Paper presented at the ACCI 2017 Annual Conference, Consumer Interests Annual, edited by Sheri Lokken Worthy, published by American Council on Consumer Interests, 2017, pp 1-24.

This paper provides a statement and an analysis of South Africa’s statutory provisions aimed at curbing reckless lending, and preventing predatory lending, to financial consumers. The focus of the paper is on the statutory mechanisms for combatting reckless and predatory lending, including a critique of the success or otherwise of the implementation of the relevant legislation. The paper aims to provide a comparative analysis of what is, overall, an innovative and effective regime, the aim of which is to protect vulnerable financial consumers from reckless and predatory lending practices. As such, it is hoped, that the paper will provide useful techniques for the protection of borrowers in other common law jurisdictions, such as Canada and the United States, or indeed wherever vulnerable consumers of finance are liable to be exploited.

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