Credit bureaus in South Africa and Namibia : a comparative analysis of the regulatory frameworks evaluated against the World Bank’s principles for credit reporting—Part II

Abstract

Part I of the article dealt with the regulatory and supervisory frameworks for consumer-credit information in South Africa and Namibia. The principles developed by the World Bank were canvassed as a point of departure for evaluation of the chosen jurisdictions. In Part II, the substantive frameworks in South Africa and Namibia are investigated and the development in the two systems compared in order to learn from each other. The themes discussed are: registration or licensing of credit bureaus, the notion of consumer-credit information, obligations imposed on credit bureaus in respect of data quality and consumer rights. We also refer to some themes dealt with by the World Bank, but not in detail by the drafters of the South African and Namibian frameworks. We conclude with observations and recommendations pertaining to the article as a whole and present South Africa and Namibia as in-house examples of credit bureau regulatory drafting in these two select African jurisdictions, against the backdrop of the World Bank’s principles. As such, it may serve as case studies for other African countries.