Australia’s pawnbrokers are too lightly regulated and that’s a problem

In late 2022, a Sydney court heard about a pawnbroker called Hock-A-Car Pty Ltd. The company had lent $AU2,000 to a woman living in outer-western Sydney, the loan secured against her Toyota Corolla. 

The woman had agreed to pay fees of $AU400 per month, an effective annual interest rate of 240 per cent.  

This arrangement is entirely legal in the Australian state of New South Wales, where pawnbrokers can charge unlimited fees. It was merely noted in passing by the judge as an example of the pawn loans routinely offered by the company.

Pawn loans like this are becoming more common, buoyed by the global cost-of-living crisis and Read the full article on Unimelb Pursuit...