The payday lending and consumer leasing industries face regulatory overhauls, if the Government accepts the recommendations of the Review of Small Amount Credit Contract Laws.The review recommendations include an extension of the protected earnings amount rule that currently applies to small loans. Small amount credit contracts are loans up to A$2000 where the term is between 16 days and 12 months.Under the current rules total SACC repayments cannot exceed 20 per cent of gross income for Centrelink recipients. The review panel has recommended changing the cap to ten per cent of net income each repayment period and applying it to all consumers.It recommended retaining the existing cap on fees and charges, which allows an SACC provider to charge a maximum establishment fee of 20 per cent of the credit amount and a maximum of four per cent a month. Direct debit fees would be included in the cap.It recommended that the rebuttable presumption rule be scrapped. Under this rule a loan is presumed to be unsuitable if the borrower has held two other SACCs within the past 90 days or if the borrower is in default under another payday loan.In making these recommendations the review panel was responding to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's submission, which said compliance with responsible lending obligations among SACC providers was low and called for the rules to be simpler and clearer.The Government set up the review last year, asking it to consider the effectiveness of the provisions in the National Consumer Credit Protection Act that relate specifically to small amount credit contracts and consumer leases.There were 24 recommendations in all, covering penalties, warnings statements and disclosures, handling of customer's banking details, suitability assessments, default and early repayment fees and marketing.Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer released the report yesterday, saying in a media release that there would be further consultation before any changes were made.When considering consumer leases, the review panel found that the absence of any limit on the price that can be charged for a lease had resulted in high charges. It recommended that consumer leases be subject to a cap on total repayments for the first time.The cap would be a multiple of the base price of the goods, calculated by adding four per cent of the base price for each whole month of the lease term to the amount of the base price. For a lease with a term longer than 48 months, the term would be deemed to be 48 months for the purpose of calculating the cap.The base price would be the recommended retail price or an agreed price where it is below the recommended retail price.Consumer leases would also be subject to a protected earnings rule.