The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has stewarded the Australian National Financial Literacy Strategy since 2011. Financial literacy is increasingly recognised as an essential part of consumer protection, complementing traditional consumer protection mechanisms such as...

In this paper the authors report the results of a survey of financial literacy levels among Australian secondary school students. While key issues concerning financial literacy among adolescents are fairly well known, and governments see the urgency of addressing low levels of such literacy...

Australian credit card debt has grown rapidly over the last two decades and there were, as at September 2011, 14.9 million credit card accounts in Australia with outstanding balances of $49.2 billion, representing an ownership rate of 87% of the adult population. Credit cards are the second...

Consumer leases are regulated in Australia separately from credit contracts. This has created opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and has resulted in significant harm to consumers. Recent reforms, which commenced on 1 March 2013, have addressed this problem by applying to consumer leases many...

Young people need have the skills and knowledge to make sound financial decisions now and as adults and to support them to engage confidently and successfully in economic life. They must navigate a much more complex financial landscape and assume greater financial responsibility at a younger age...

The current debate in the United Kingdom about the appropriate regulatory response to payday lending involves the key issue of borrower vulnerability. There is compelling evidence in the UK that many payday lenders are deliberately making loans to financially vulnerable borrowers who cannot...

Consumer leases offer low-income consumers the option to hire household items that they do not have the money to purchase upfront. They are marketed by consumer lease providers as a cheap way to purchase important household items. However, recent studies illustrate that the price ultimately paid...

The regulation of payday lending in Australia has recently been reformed. The reforms followed a highly charged and polarised debate between the conflicting interests of consumer and welfare advocates — who argued for increased protection for payday loan borrowers — and the payday loan...

This paper examines recent trends in Australian personal bankruptcy by analysing a large data set obtained from the regulator, the Australian Financial Security Authority. It demonstrates a marked decline in Australian bankruptcy rates, since a peak in 2009, and a consistent rise in levels of...

Consumers in Australia and other developed countries are increasingly required to interact with providers of complex financial products and services, and to estimate, mitigate or absorb the risks that flow from their financial decisions. A range of debt-related problems in Australia have been...