Another grey area in the new Australian credit licensing regime was cleared up yesterday when the Minister for Financial Services, Chris Bowen, announced an amendment to the National Consumer Credit Protection Regulations that exempts referrers from licensing.The exemption will allow lenders and brokers to continue to obtain new business through referrer networks. Non-credit businesses, such as community and sporting organisations, can refer customer details to credit providers without holding an Australian credit licence.However, the new law requires that a person must give their consent before their contact details can be passed on. And when a lender or broker gets in touch with the person they must "specifically ask" whether they are happy to continue with the conversation.Yesterday's announcement follows the release of another amendment to the regulations earlier in the week. Special purpose funding entities that are credit providers or lessors in the securitisation industry and other parts of the non-bank sector will not be required to hold an Australian credit licence. The change keeps lenders of record, such as Perpetual and BNY, and wholesale funders out of the National Consumer Credit Protection regime.