71 CBLJ 201

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LENDING WITH INTEGRITY: A PATH TO BETTER CONSUMER PROTECTION

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Micheline Gleixner

 

ABSTRACT 

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Over the past two decades, the principle of responsible lending has evolved from a soft international aspiration into a recognized legal and policy standard. Anchored in global benchmarks, such as the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection, the G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection and the World Bank’s Good Practices for Financial Consumer Protection, responsible lending requires credit providers to ensure that financial products are affordable, suitable and aligned with consumers’ financial well-being. Yet Canada’s fragmented framework— divided between limited provincial provisions and a narrowly scoped federal regime— falls short of these emerging international norms. Drawing on comparative experience from the European Union, the United Kingdom and Australia, this paper argues for the adoption of a unified national consumer credit framework embedding responsible lending obligations throughout the entire consumer credit industry. This recommendation is supported by four complementary reform pillars: a borrower-focused affordability and suitability assessment, quality product regulation, detailed implementation guidelines and a robust system of supervision, enforcement and economic incentives. It further demonstrates that Canada possesses both the constitutional authority and the policy capacity to legislate in this field. The paper concludes that responsible lending represents not only a consumer protection imperative but also a structural measure to promote financial stability and market integrity. By aligning regulatory expectations for the consumer credit industry with those already imposed on the securities sector, Canada can foster a fair, transparent and sustainable credit market that enhances consumer financial resilience and contributes to long-term economic stability.