Respect, Collaboration, Knowledge
Arca is the only industry association whose sole focus is on consumer credit – with expertise across the regulatory and operational environment.
Arca is driven by the vision of making credit work for all Australians.
We bring together Australia’s leading credit providers and reporting bodies to improve data protection and make credit more visible, accessible and easily understood.
Through advocacy, governance, education and engagement, we shape best practice and ensure Australia’s credit system is robust, respected and trusted. We are the peak industry association for organisations involved in the disclosure, exchange and application of data for credit management in Australia.
Arca is the only industry association whose sole focus is on consumer credit – with expertise across the regulatory and operational environment.
Our Members account for 95% of consumer lending in Australia and include the 14 largest banks, mutual banks, large consumer finance companies, specialist motor vehicle finance companies, fintechs, and credit reporting bodies (CRBs).
We support Members through creating and managing “fit for purpose” and compliant industry rules and standards, and work with all Members and other key stakeholders to provide thought leadership, develop co-ordinated industry positions and lead advocacy efforts on key issues impacting Members.
Arca is a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee.
Arca’s Board is drawn from credit provider and credit reporting body representatives across the breadth of our Membership.
Arca’s constitution, last amended in November 2021, sets out Arca’s objects and information about how both Members and Directors participate in Arca.
Our Areas of Work
Our work is driven by the vision of making credit work for all Australians. We work with our Members and key stakeholders in a respectful, knowledgeable and collaborative way to understand and improve credit in Australia. We aim to make credit visible, accessible and understood. Our drivers for success are:
Driving value and engagement for existing and new Members and signatories.
Arca actively seeks to engage with Members through its working groups, email updates and 1:1 engagement with our team. Arca wants to understand each of our Members and how we can work with our Members to improve consumer outcomes.
Connecting and collaborating with stakeholders to increase awareness and engagement.
Arca plays a critical role connecting with a wide range of stakeholders and helping these stakeholders understand issues important to our Member and ultimately consumers. Arca also holds a number of events through the year, providing opportunities for industry to network and learn about industry developments and practices. The Arca Credit Summit has been running annually since 2012, and each year is attended by more than 500 industry professionals from Australia and New Zealand.
Supporting Members and consumers by providing consistent, trusted education resources
With support from our Members, our CreditSmart® consumer education program supports consumers to better understand and take ownership of their credit information and their credit health more broadly. CreditSmart© education resources have included a range of verbal and written scripts for direct use by Members assisting consumers to understand hardship, as well as Easy English resources.
Developing, maintaining & strengthening the rules framework & data system.
Arca plays an instrumental role in developing, maintaining and strengthening the rules framework, data system management and sharing ecosystem underpinning the credit reporting system. We have acted as CR Code developers since 2013, and, through our subsidiary entity (the Reciprocity and Data Exchange Administrator) we run industry rules for data exchange and the data standard for supply of comprehensive credit reporting data.
Identifying and progressing policy initiatives and improvements.
Arca identifies and progresses work on policy problems where advocacy, and Arca involvement in any change, can lead to better outcomes for the credit system as a whole.
Our History
Founded
Arca was established in 2006 to provide an industry forum to advocate for improvements to Australia's credit reporting system. Arca brought together wide-ranging organisations looking to improve their consumer credit decisioning and management. The purpose of improving credit reporting was to improve access to credit and enable more efficient processes.
Comprehensive credit reporting on the way
By bringing industry together, Arca was able to successfully advocate for the introduction of comprehensive credit reporting in Australia. In October 2009 the Government announced that it accepted recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission that the credit reporting system should be made more comprehensive, and include information about current loans and repayments.
Introduction of Comprehensive Credit Reporting
Comprehensive credit reporting was enabled in 2014 following major changes to credit reporting laws. Arca drafted the new Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code for the Government regulator, which provides more detail and clarity about the new laws.
Arca’s Award Winning Education Campaign
Education is one of Arca's key pillars. The CreditSmart® consumer education campaign is proudly led by Arca on behalf of industry. CreditSmart® was awarded the 2014 MoneySmart Outstanding Achievement Award, recognising the campaign as the most effective contribution to improving consumer financial literacy in 2014. Today CreditSmart has grown into a key consumer information website.
Data sharing business rules get the green light from the ACCC
To support the new comprehensive credit reporting regime, Arca developed the business-to-business rules about sharing information, and the technical data standards under which information is shared. The business rules, known as the Principles of Reciprocity and Data Exchange (PRDE), were authorised by the ACCC in December 2015.
Uptake of comprehensive credit reporting grows widespread
Following large change projects, sharing of comprehensive data became common throughout 2018 and 2019. Arca tracked industry’s efforts to implement the new regime through its Credit Data Fact Base publications. By the end of 2019, comprehensive data was being reported on 21.5 million accounts.
Arca helps industry and consumers to navigate the financial shocks from COVID-19
Arca works with Government, Members and other stakeholders to ensure that the credit reporting system supports all Australians through the pandemic.
Fair and accurate reporting of financial hardship arrangements starts
After several years of advocating for a way to reflect hardship support in the credit reporting system, further reforms started in July 2022. Arca supported the reforms by preparing CR Code changes for the regulator, as well as assisting Members with implementation and consumer education resources.
Fair and accurate reporting of financial hardship arrangements starts
After several years of advocating for a way to reflect hardship support in the credit reporting system, further reforms started in July 2022. Arca supported the reforms by preparing CR Code changes for the regulator, as well as assisting Members with implementation and consumer education resources.
Arca continues to lobby for changes to modernise Australia’s credit reporting system including new data sets and use cases, improved consumer protections, and improvements to regulation of credit repair firms.
2010
Founded
Arca was established in 2006 to provide an industry forum to advocate for improvements to Australia's credit reporting system. Since inception, Arca has represented the views of the wide-ranging organisations involved in consumer credit decisioning and management. Our purpose has always been clear: to improve availability of credit through responsible and efficient credit management policy and practice.
2014
First Impression Projects
By bringing industry together, Arca was able to successfully advocate for the introduction of comprehensive credit reporting in Australia, which was introduced in 2014 following major changes to credit reporting laws. To support industry to implement comprehensive credit reporting, Arca developed the business-to-business rules and data standards under which credit reporting information is exchanged between credit providers (the Principles of Reciprocity and Data Exchange and the Australian Credit Reporting Data Standards).
2019
Project Milestone
Arca also developed and has subsequently varied the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code which was approved by the OAIC and sets out the obligations and rights of consumers and businesses arising under the Privacy Act. Arca continues to govern and support implementation of credit reporting across the Australian consumer credit industry.
2022
New Patnerships
Education is one of Arca's key pillars. The CreditSmart® consumer education campaign is proudly led by Arca on behalf of industry. CreditSmart® was awarded the 2014 MoneySmart Outstanding Achievement Award, recognising the campaign as the most effective contribution to improving consumer financial literacy in 2014.
2025
Locking Ahead
The Arca Credit Summit - a three day event which includes practical workshops, expert speakers from industry and regulators and networking - is now in its eighth year. It has grown from welcoming 120 delegates in 2013, to become the premier annual event in the consumer credit industry, welcoming almost 500 industry professionals from Australia and New Zealand.
Frequently Ask Questions
Arca (Australia Retail Credit Association) is the peak industry association with a vision of making credit work for all Australians. Working with Members, our strategy is to support and strengthen the data system, collaborate with Members and stakeholders to help navigate credit and credit reporting, and build understanding for both consumers and industry.
Membership of Arca provides access to specialist support and resources on credit reporting, as well as the opportunity to contribute to advocacy and reform of the data system. Arca aids its Members in consumer education, through its website CreditSmart. Arca has also played a role in system governance; we have been developer of the Credit Reporting Code since 2013.
The RDEA (Reciprocity and Data Exchange Administrator) is an Arca subsidiary with a much more narrow, focussed role which is the administration of the industry code to support data sharing. This code is known as the PRDE (Principles of Reciprocity and Data Exchange). There are currently more than 135 participating organisations (including credit providers and credit reporting bodies) who are PRDE Signatories.
Membership of Arca is separate to being a PRDE signatory; separate processes and fees apply. Being a PRDE signatory is largely a compliance function (i.e. compliance with the PRDE). Being an Arca Membership is about participating in the value of Arca’s advocacy, specialist support and resources (which are not otherwise available to non-Members).
To find out if you are an Arca Member, a list of current Members is here.
If you are currently a PRDE Signatory, but not an Arca Member, contact us to know more.
Arca Membership is available at two different levels. Full Membership and Associate Membership. Credit Providers large or small and including those in financial services as well as non-financial services, as well as Credit Reporting Bodies are welcome to apply to become full Arca Members. Our Associate Membership is suited to those organisations with an interest in the data system or Arca’s work more generally, who work industry, and do not hold a credit licence. Each new Arca Membership Application will be presented to our Board to assess suitability, and Membership is dependent upon Board approval.
Arca Membership can mean different things; depending on the Member, their size and role in the market, and the breadth and depth of skills within their team. As an observation, Members would observe that Arca Membership:
- Keeps them up-to-date on developments in the data system, and also provides them an insight into industry practices
- Provides them an opportunity to advocate for improvements, either by accessing Arca resources to advocate for improvements within their own organisation, or helping to shape future changes to the system
- Helps them develop their own knowledge and expertise, either by tapping into Arca specialist 1:1 knowledge, better understanding best practice or engagement with their peers
- Exposes them to the views and attitudes of a range of external stakeholders, including consumer advocates, Government, regulators, external dispute resolution schemes
- Builds their industry networks including through workgroup engagement, social functions and Arca’s annual Credit Summit.
Arca Members actively work to improve data collection and management for credit assessment and credit management. This includes supplying and using comprehensive credit data (CCR), actively seeking to improve data quality and processes, and, where possible, adopting risk based pricing.
Absolutely. Slightly different to the full Arca Membership available to Credit Providers (CPs) and Credit Reporting Bodies (CRBs), the Associate Membership offering is available to those not directly providing credit to consumers, but who are associated with the industry. Law Firms, Mortgage Insurers, IT Service Providers and Financial Wellness Platforms are all examples of the types of organisations who would benefit from an Arca Associate Membership.
In Australia there are three main credit reporting bodies that provide consumers with a credit report.
Credit reporting bodies collect information from credit providers and public sources and prepare a report at your request or the credit of a credit provider when you apply for credit. By getting a copy of your report from a credit reporting body you can see the same information that your bank or other credit provider is seeing.
Each credit reporting body has a separate set of files so it is a good idea to request a copy from each credit reporting body.
You can get a copy of your credit report for FREE, every three months. If you need to see it more frequently, you can pay a small free to access it.
Equifax
Visit: https://www.equifax.com.au/personal/products/equifax-free-credit-report
Call: 13 83 32
Experian
Visit: https://www.experian.com.au/consumer/order-credit-report
Call: 1300 783 684
illion
Visit: https://www.illion.com.au/#illion-for-individuals
Call: 13 23 33
Arca’s CreditSmart® consumer education website: creditsmart.org.au provides free, objective and easy to understand information on how credit reporting works in Australia and helpful recourses on credit reporting topics impacting Australian consumers, including the basics of credit, comprehensive credit reporting, financial hardship, buy now pay later, credit scores and credit identity protection.
To find out if you are an Arca Member, a list of current Members is here. As an Arca Member your organisation would also receive regular correspondence and invites to specialist forums (i.e. Arca Policy Workgroup, Arca Best Practice Workgroup). If you are still unsure, please contact us and will be happy to help you.
Click here to contact us and our friendly team will get in touch to help.
Please reach out to our Member Engagement Manager Cassie Nicole who will be happy to help you.
To apply to be a PRDE Signatory, email us at [email protected] and we will quickly respond to provide more information and organise an introductory meeting.
The sign-up process is straightforward and can usually be processed within days.
As a PRDE Signatory, details are provided of other participating PRDE signatories and relevant information.
As a consumer/non PRDE signatory a list of organisations which contribute comprehensive credit reporting information can be found here.
Your financial institution will also be able to confirm if they are a PRDE Signatory.
If you have any queries, please contact use at [email protected].
What Arca Members are Saying
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Arca PO Box Q170, Queen Victoria Building NSW 1230
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