Checklist · Financial Services Regulation

Responsible lending unsuitability assessment record (credit providers)

File record and checklist for a credit provider's assessment that a credit contract or limit increase is not unsuitable: inquiries, verification, the assessment, automated decision tools, the outcome and the consumer's right to a copy.

Kind: Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
Where it applies: Australia
AI use: Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
Law stated as at: 17 October 2026
Status: Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
Version: 1
Source: Written for this library

When to use it

Use for each consumer credit contract or credit limit increase regulated by the NCCP Act, and to audit loan files. Credit assistance providers (brokers) make a preliminary assessment under Part 3-1 instead; adapt the section references. Not for small business or other credit outside the National Credit Code.

How AI may be used

Automated scoring, transaction categorisation and AI tools may support the inquiries and verification, but the licensee must actually make the assessment the Act requires, be able to explain it, and keep the material it relied on.

AI may

Categorise bank transaction data into income, expense and liability types for the assessor to check.
Flag inconsistencies between declared information, bank data and credit report data.
Pre-fill this record from the loan file, marking every field that has no supporting document.

AI must not

Must not make the final unsuitability assessment or decline a consumer without human review where the licensee's policy requires it.
Must not substitute a benchmark or model estimate for inquiries the circumstances call for.
Must not process consumer financial data in a tool not approved for that data under the licensee's privacy and security controls.

The lawyer checks

The record shows each limb of s 131(2) was considered: ability to comply without substantial hardship, requirements and objectives, and any prescribed circumstances.
Verification steps match the risk of the product and the consumer's circumstances (scalability, RG 209).
The model version, inputs, overrides and human review are recorded so the decision can be explained.

Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.

Authorities

Official form

Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer.

Read the full text

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read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.

The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.

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