Squirrel founder and chief executive John Bolton has been in the thick of the CCCFA debate with two petitions seeking change as well as having a meeting with Commerce Minister David Clark.
Bolton thinks there will be some changes coming out of the review into the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.
But the unanswered question is, will it be enough? And he says there is a good chance it won't be.
Bolton was among several mortgage professionals and lobbyists who met the minister last week, along with officials from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
He said the meeting went well, and Clark appeared to be well informed, and was across the issue.
But he had to balance the interests of vulnerable borrowers with the damage the law was causing elsewhere in the market.
“I don't know where he is going to land on it, I think we will see some changes coming through. The question will be, whether it is enough?”
Even though the meeting with Clark had MBIE officials present, Bolton was still interested in a further meeting with those officials where he would have more time to make his point.
“A meeting with the minister is great, but it tends to be a high-level conversation and quite rushed.
“You tend not to be able to sit in front of a minister of the Crown for very long, so you are rushing through it when you need to spend time to unpack the details and work out what changes need to be made.”
Bolton said he was an optimist and it was clear there had to be changes to a law which was not working. It was possible the law might only be tweaked or the changes might go further.
“At the very least, there will be much better examples used to improve interpretation of the law.
“To be honest, I think that would be too little … we are not talking of throwing it out, we are just thinking about getting it fit for purpose.”
However, as reported earlier ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt is more optimistic about any changes. [READ ON]
