The AFR has reported that the terms for a new parliamentary inquiry, passed by the Senate on Wednesday afternoon, include examining "whether the current regulation of debt vultures, payday lenders and 'buy now, pay later' providers is adequate to protect vulnerable members of the community from financial harm". The enquiry, if it gets underway sooner rather than later will affect a range of consumer lenders such as the ASX-listed Zip, AfterPay, FlexiGroup, CreditCorp, and their unlisted competitors. Whether they are vultures is a matter of conjecture, but the surprise announcement also has the potential to pre-empt another ASIC report on the so-called "buy-now-pay-later" business models, due later this year. Interbank funds transfer business SWIFT, in conjunction with NPP Australia - the organisation that oversees the operation of the New Payments Platform -  launched a secure cloud-based environment for fintechs and other payments providers to test the capabilities of the NPP. The "NPP API sandbox" follows on from the introduction of the NPP API Framework that defines the key technical approaches in a way that "promotes standardisation, inter-operability and a consistent experience," among the wider fintech and payments community in Australia. Unlike other real-time payments platforms around the world, the NPP that it has been designed to be inclusive and 'open access' noted Adrian Lovney, CEO of NPP Australia. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has unveiled its strategy ahead of its national launch on 1 November 2018, setting out how AFCA will work with consumers, small business and the financial services sector to resolve and reduce financial disputes. AFCA will enjoy increased financial thresholds, allowing it to handle more financial complaints from consumer and small business than were covered by predecessor schemes: the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Credit and Investments Ombudsman and Superannuation Complaints Tribunal. NAB and Westpac, through their NAB Ventures and Westpac Reinventure capital arms, have both invested in Australian smart receipt startup Slyp, reports Finextra. Slyp's technology captures customers' itemised receipt data from POS software and automatically delivers interactive "smart receipts" to their cellphones and internet banking apps. NAB has been running trials and is also working towards integrating Slyp's technology into its own banking services next year. Happy International Credit Union Day to all employees of mutual banks. The royal commission into misconduct in the banking superannuation and financial services industry has given credit union and mutual executives plenty to celebrate, this year with a growing number of Australians moving their bank accounts to credit unions and customer owned banks. According to the World Council of Credit Unions' report, 26.3 per cent of Australians choose credit unions and mutual banks over larger banks. Some APRA quarterly statistics stats cited by the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals show housing loan growth of 6.7 per cent pa (compared to all ADI growth of 4.1 per cent pa) and deposits growth of 7.7 per cent pa (all ADIs: 2.5 per cent pa). Westpac has picked "regtech" as the theme of its Innovation Challenge this