Australia's consumer credit law needs to be expanded to regulate segments of the finance market not currently covered by the National Consumer Credit Protection Act.Speakers on a panel reviewing the impact of recent consumer credit reform at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission' summer school yesterday said so-called credit repairers and finance companies specialising in small business finance should be regulated.The coordinator of the New South Wales Consumer Credit Legal Centre, Karen Cox, said credit repair companies charged large up-front fees to investigate a consumer's credit file and "clear" the file.Cox said that in some cases consumers were being charged hundreds of dollars for having errors in credit files corrected - something they could do themselves for nothing.In other cases, the credit repair companies have used aggressive tactics to try and persuade the lender or the credit reporting agency to remove legitimate listings.And in some cases Cox's staff have dealt with the credit repair company has persuaded the consumer to enter Part IX insolvency arrangements, which they then administer for a fee."It is a completely unregulated area," said Cox.Veda Advantage's head of legal, compliance and regulatory, Olga Ganopolsky, said her staff had experience of the aggressive tactics used by credit repair companies to try and have their clients' credit files cleared.Cox said there was a high level of crossover between consumer and small business loan problems among the 15,000 calls her centre receives each year. Cox said small business borrowers had protections under the ASIC Act and other legislation but rarely had access to remedies under those laws because they could not complain to an external dispute resolution scheme."I would like to see small business borrowers have the same access to EDR as consumers,"" she said.Cox said one of the shortcomings of the NCCP Act was that some breaches of the law carried criminal penalties."Those provisions have created a lot of paranoia and should be looked at," she said.ASIC's executive leader for deposit-takers, credit and insurers, Greg Kirk, said ASIC was putting resources into investigating high-risk areas. Last year, ASIC reported on payday lending practices and the activities of intermediaries selling low doc loans. Its reports have provided more specific guidance to operators in those areas.Kirk said: "Our next step will be to look at high-risk lending products, such as sub-prime and low-doc. We want to see how lenders are handling their responsible lending obligations in these areas."We will also look at small leased-goods providers. They don't seem to have a good understanding of their obligations."Generally, we are looking at whether we need to add more detail to our guidance on responsible lending."