NCR credit provider registration

Who must register

• Anyone who extends credit for a charge. Section 40 of the Act requires registration once the total owed under your credit agreements exceeds the threshold, and the Minister set the threshold at nil in Government Notice 513 of 11 May 2016, effective six months later. One agreement with interest or a fee is enough: cash loans, instalment sales, rent to own, pawn transactions, vehicle finance, and staff loans that carry interest.
• Not incidental credit. Interest or a late fee on an ordinary account for goods or services, charged only because the customer paid late, is an incidental credit agreement, and section 40 excludes it. A supplier who only does that does not register, although the interest is capped at 2% a month.
• Not loans outside the Act. Loans between family members who depend on each other, a shareholder’s loan to their own company, loans to a company with assets or turnover of R1 million or more, and interest free, fee free loans fall outside the registration duty.
• Natural persons and entities alike. The NCR registers individuals, companies, close corporations, trusts, partnerships and co-operatives. Every person who manages or controls the business signs the disqualification declaration and supplies a police clearance.
• Who cannot register. Section 46: an unrehabilitated insolvent, anyone under 18, anyone removed from an office of trust for dishonesty, a director of a lender that was deregistered, and anyone imprisoned in the past ten years for theft, fraud, forgery, perjury, corruption, a violent crime or an offence under the Act.

What the NCR charges, and what unregistered lending costs

A new lender with one branch and a book under R250 000 pays the NCR R1 800 at application and R1 250 every July. These fees come from Government Notice 514 of 11 May 2016 and are paid to the NCR, never to us.

• The agreement is void. Section 89: an agreement by a credit provider that should have been registered is unlawful, and the court or Tribunal must make a just and equitable order starting with voiding it from the day it was signed.
• The money goes back. In April 2025 the Supreme Court of Appeal in The Loan Company case upheld an order that an unregistered pawn broker return the consumers’ goods or their value and everything paid above the loan amount, with a fine of R250 000.
• Fines. Section 151 allows an administrative fine of up to 10% of the previous year’s turnover or R1 million, whichever is greater.

What is included

Registration, R1 990.

• A written check first: whether what you do is a credit agreement at all, which of your products the Act covers, and which registration category and branch count apply, so you pay the NCR the right amount
• Form 2 completed in full for the entity: legal status, premises, the credit products you will offer, your auditor or accounting officer, and the section 48 commitments on combating over indebtedness and B-BBEE
• Part 7, the disqualification declaration, prepared for every director, member, trustee or partner, with the SAPS criminal record consent
• The police clearance certificates arranged for each of them, with the fingerprint appointment instructions and the courier route, because the NCR will not accept one older than six months
• The supporting pack assembled: CIPC documents, share certificates, certified identity documents, the resolution authorising the application, the stamped bank letter and the SARS registration proof
• The NCR fees calculated and the payment reference prepared so the proof of payment matches the application
• Lodged by email with the Regulator’s registrations office under your signed authority, every query answered within the fifteen business days the Regulations allow, and the proposed conditions reviewed with you before you sign them
• Your NCRCP certificate filed in your client portal, with the display and numbering duties explained
• A starter kit for day one: the pre agreement statement and quotation on the prescribed Form 20, the affordability assessment procedure under regulation 23A with the income and expense checks, the section 129 default notice, and a one page sheet of the interest, initiation fee, service fee and credit life caps for each credit type

Annual renewal and returns, R1 490 a year.

• The renewal fee calculated on your current book and branches, paid before 31 July with the proof sent to the NCR’s fees office, so the registration never lapses
• The Form 39 statistical return for the calendar year prepared from your loan register and filed by 15 February
• The annual compliance report questionnaire completed with you and the Form 40 financial and operational return prepared, both filed within six months of your financial year end with your financial statements and your accountant’s assurance report
• Any change of directors, premises or products notified to the NCR on the right form
• The year’s dates in your diary with a reminder before each one

What we do not do

• We do not take the fingerprints. Each director attends the police station or an accredited provider in person for the clearance; we book and track it.
• We do not prepare the financial statements or the assurance report. Those are your accountant’s work under regulations 65 and 68; we coordinate and file them.
• We do not register you with the Financial Intelligence Centre in this fee. A credit provider is also an accountable institution under item 11 of Schedule 1 to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and must register there and keep a risk management and compliance programme. Ask us for a written quote.
• We do not promise a date. The NCR decides on its own timetable; our part is lodged within two business days of your documents and chased until it is done.

How ordering works

1. Order online with the button below and pay securely by card or instant EFT (PayFast), or wait for the EFT invoice.
2. Complete the questionnaire in your client portal: the entity, the people in control, the premises, the credit products and the expected size of the book. Upload the CIPC documents, identity documents and a bank letter or statement.
3. We send each director the clearance instructions and the Part 7 declaration to sign, complete Form 2 and the supporting pack, and give you the NCR fee reference to pay.
4. We lodge, answer the Regulator’s queries, review the conditions with you, and file the certificate in your portal with the starter kit. The yearly service then takes over if you ordered it.

Not sure whether your product counts as credit under the Act? Ask us first and you get a written answer within one business day.

What we will need from you

• The entity’s CIPC registration documents and share certificates, or your identity document if you register in your own name.
• Certified identity documents for every director, member, trustee, partner or shareholder.
• A police clearance certificate not older than six months for each person in control. We arrange it; each person attends for fingerprints.
• A signed and stamped bank letter confirming the business account, or a stamped bank statement not older than six months.
• Proof of SARS registration, which is the notice of registration from eFiling.
• Your accountant’s details: firm, practice number and professional body, which Form 2 asks for.
• The premises you will lend from and the credit products you will offer, with the expected size of the loan book in the first year.

The rules you lend under once registered

Registration is the gate; these are the rules behind it, all from the National Credit Regulations as amended in 2015 and 2017. The starter kit puts each of them into a document you can use.

• Service fee no more than R60 a month. Credit life insurance no more than R4,50 per R1 000 of the outstanding balance, R2 per R1 000 on a mortgage.
• Affordability. Regulation 23A: three months of payslips or bank statements, the minimum expense table, and a credit bureau check within seven business days before you grant the loan.
• Before signing. A pre agreement statement and quotation on Form 20, binding for five business days.
• On default. A section 129 notice first, then at least twenty business days in default and ten after the notice before any court step.
• On every document. Your NCRCP number and registered status, and the certificate displayed at each premises.

Frequently asked questions

Usually ordered with it

• Company registration, R790. Most lenders register a company first so the loan book sits in it.
• Tax clearance PIN, R450. Proof of SARS registration and good standing for the application and for funders.
• POPIA compliance pack, R1 890. A lender holds identity numbers, payslips and bank statements; the Information Regulator expects the policies.
• Employment contract, R490. For the staff who will assess and collect.