About the revised Recommendation

Consumer credit is a vital part of modern financial services and enables consumers to achieve many of their goals and objectives.  It is important that consumer credit is provided fairly and responsibly as far as possible to help avoid over-indebtedness and related problems, which are detrimental for both consumers and businesses.

The OECD Recommendation on Consumer Protection in the field of Consumer Credit sets out high-level recommendations for Adherents to take measures relating to the protection of consumers in relation to consumer credit transactions. Since the initital adoption of the Recommendation in 1977, the size and nature of the consumer credit market has grown and changed considerably. Significant developments have also taken place in the approach to regulating and supervising consumer credit markets in the interests of financial consumer protection. The OECD is now updating the 1977 Recommendation to reflect these changes and ensure that it remains the relevant international standard in this domain.

The draft revised Recommendation on Consumer Protection in the field of Consumer Credit is available for public comment until 21 December 2018.

This update is being undertaken by G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection (the Task Force) which is responsible for developing and updating international policy guidance on financial consumer protection, including the High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection. The Task Force is a sub-committee of the OECD Committee on Financial Markets (CMF).

Invitation to comment

The draft revised Recommendation is likely to be of interest to financial consumer protection policy makers, national oversight bodies responsible for consumer credit, consumer credit industry representatives and consumer advocates.

Responses received will be analysed by the OECD and shared with members of the Task Force and the CMF.  They will be taken into consideration in developing the final version of the draft revised Recommendation.

Responses will be considered public and may be published on the website subject to compliance with OECD website guidelines. Please indicate clearly if you do not wish your response to be published.

Contributions

Comments should be submitted by COB on 21 December 2018 to [email protected]

Documents and links

Draft revised Recommendation for comment

1977 Recommendation

High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection

What are OECD Recommendations and how are they used?

OECD Recommendations are adopted by the OECD’s governing body, the Council, and result from the substantive work carried out in the Organisation’s committees and their subsidiary bodies.  Recommendations generally contain high-level policy directions based on agreed good practices and aspirational goals, and serve to highlight the importance of specific work areas in the context of broader international policy-making.  They are not legally binding, but practice accords them great moral force as representing the political will of Members and non-Members having adhered to them (Adherents), on whom there is an expectation to do their utmost to fully implement them.

For more information, please consult the online Compendium of OECD Legal Instruments.