Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

PRIVACY ACT 1988 - SECT 21F

  (1)   This section applies if:

  (a)   a credit reporting body holds credit reporting information about an individual; and

  (b)   a credit provider requests the body to disclose the information to the provider for the purpose of assessing an application for consumer credit made to the provider by the individual, or a person purporting to be the individual; and

  (c)   the body is not permitted to disclose the information because there is a ban period for the information; and

  (d)   during the ban period, the provider provides the consumer credit to which the application relates to the individual, or the person purporting to be the individual.

  (2)   If the credit provider holds credit information about the individual that relates to the consumer credit, the provider must not, despite sections   21D and 21E, disclose the information to a credit reporting body.

Civil penalty:   2,000 penalty units.

  (3)   Subsection   (2) does not apply if the credit provider has taken such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to verify the identity of the individual.