What it does
This Act establishes a Victorian statutory framework that, as of the version provided, performs three concrete mechanical tasks.
First, it states its object: to regulate the provision of credit (s 1). That is the statutory purpose the rest of the instrument is tied to.
Second, the Act preserves two substantive regulatory constraints on high-cost credit and related security arrangements. It makes a credit contract and any mortgage given in relation to that contract unenforceable where the annual percentage rate (APR) in respect of the contract exceeds 48 per cent (s 39(1)). It also makes a mortgage relating to a credit contract void in so far as the APR exceeds 30 per cent (s 40). Separately, the Act criminalises the act of a credit provider entering into a credit contract with an APR exceeding 48 per cent by imposing a monetary penalty of 10 penalty units for contravention of s 39(3).
Third, the Act handles a narrow financial-accounting outcome for civil penalties. Amounts of civil penalty awarded in proceedings commenced under a provision of the Consumer Credit (Victoria) Code before the Commonwealth commencement are to be paid into the Victorian Consumer Law Fund established under the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012 (s 38).
Mechanically, the Act also binds the Crown (s 4) and links its terminology and reach to the Commonwealth national regime by importing definitions and concepts from the National Credit Code and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (see s 38AA). The remaining operative provisions of the Act have largely been superseded, repealed, or adapted following Commonwealth arrangements (see the long list of repeals and the amendment table in the endnotes). The Act therefore functions both as a local protector of specified APR ceilings and as a transitional vehicle for pre-Commonwealth‑commencement civil penalty funds.