Experian Australia Removes Comprehensive Credit Reporting Compliance Burden for Credit Providers

First tool of its kind in Australia streamlines the administration of consumer correction requests following introduction of Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012

Experian Australia announced the launch of its Corrections Exchange, aimed at simplifying the corrections process after the introduction of comprehensive credit reporting in March 2014. The Corrections Exchange was developed after consultation with major credit providers including Experian’s credit bureau joint-venture partners*. It is the first of its kind in Australia.

Under the new Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, credit providers have an obligation to help people who think that their credit report contains inaccurate information. For example, an individual may have been a joint account holder which has subsequently changed. The individual has the right to request the information to be corrected by removing their name on the account. Credit providers are required to respond to an individual’s correction request within 30 days, during which time they may need to contact other lenders or the holder of the information to determine the accuracy of the disputed information. Once a decision has been determined, the credit provider has five working days to inform the consumer of the outcome. Failure to meet obligations may result in material breach penalties of up to $1.7m per case**.

To ensure the obligations can be met, credit providers will need to maintain up-to-date contact lists for other credit providers and credit reporting bodies, case management and storage systems and ensure tracking and reporting processes are in place from the commencement of the amended Privacy Act in March 2014.