The We Are Not a Financial Product Era Is Ending

Key Takeaways

• Whether something is a financial product or a credit product turns on substance and rights, not labels, and the perimeter is technology neutral.
• Buy now pay later entered the national consumer credit regime from June 2025, ending the sector's flagship perimeter position.
• A licensing framework for payment service providers is in progress in Australia.
• The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026 (Cth) commences on 9 April 2027 and brings digital asset platforms into the AFSL regime.
• A perimeter position is an argument that gets tested by regulators, partners and acquirers, and mapping it early is what preserves your options.

1. 1.In Brief
2. 2.The Line Was Always an Argument
3. 3.Three Chapters of the Same Story
4. 4.Who Actually Tests Your Position
5. 5.What the Well Advised Do Differently
6. 6.Frequently Asked Questions

Somewhere in the diligence folder of almost every Australian fintech is a memo, a deck slide or a confident founder answer that says some version of the same sentence: we are not a financial product. For a decade that sentence built companies. It kept licensing costs off the runway model, kept regulators out of the product roadmap and kept the pitch simple. The problem is that the sentence was never a fact. It was an argument. And the environment that argument lives in is changing faster than most of the businesses relying on it.

In Brief

• Whether something is a financial product or a credit product turns on substance and rights, not labels.
• The general licensing perimeter under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) is technology neutral.
• BNPL entered the national consumer credit regime from June 2025, requiring an Australian credit licence.
• A licensing framework for payment service providers is in progress in Australia.
• Digital asset platforms enter the AFSL regime when the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026 (Cth) commences on 9 April 2027.

The Line Was Always an Argument

The Australian licensing perimeter has a quality that surprises founders and rarely surprises lawyers: it does not care what you call your product. Whether something is a financial product or a credit product turns on substance and rights, not labels, and the general perimeter under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) is technology neutral. A wallet, a card, a token, an app and a spreadsheet can all be the same regulated thing if the rights behind them are the same.

That means every we are not a financial product position is really a claim about substance, held together by how the arrangement is structured and documented. Some of those claims are strong. Some were strong when they were written and have quietly weakened as the product evolved, because products evolve faster than memos. And some were never analysed at all. They were inherited from a competitor's blog post or a previous employer's structure, which is to say they were never a position, only a posture.

Three Chapters of the Same Story

If the perimeter is stable, a weak position can survive a long time. The reason this era is ending is that the perimeter itself is moving, and it is moving in one direction.

Chapter one is buy now pay later. From June 2025 BNPL sits inside the national consumer credit regime, with providers required to hold an Australian credit licence and apply a modified responsible lending framework. The sector's founding position, credit like economics without credit regulation, is over.

Chapter two is payments. A reform of payments system licensing, a licensing framework for payment service providers, is in progress in Australia. It is reform underway rather than law in force, and that is precisely the window in which positioning decisions are cheap. Facilitators, platforms embedding payments and marketplaces holding or moving customer money are the businesses whose boundary this redraws.

Chapter three is digital assets. The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026 (Cth) commences on 9 April 2027 and brings digital asset platforms into the AFSL regime. A sector that spent years arguing about whether its products were financial products is getting a legislated answer for platforms, which is the perimeter widening in its most explicit form.

Who Actually Tests Your Position

Founders imagine the perimeter question arriving as a regulator's letter. Sometimes it does. More often it arrives commercially, and earlier. A bank or payments partner runs onboarding diligence and asks for the licensing analysis. An institutional investor's lawyers ask what the product is in substance and whether the memo matches the product that actually shipped. An acquirer prices the gap between your position and their risk appetite, and the gap comes out of your valuation. In each case the question is the same: is the position an argument that holds, or a sentence everyone stopped examining in 2021?

The uncomfortable feature of perimeter risk is that it compounds silently. Every customer onboarded, every dollar moved and every month operated on an unexamined position adds to the exposure without changing how anything feels day to day. Nothing feels different until everything does.

What the Well Advised Do Differently

None of this means every fintech needs a licence. Plenty of models sit genuinely outside the perimeter, and knowing that with confidence is itself a commercial asset that shortens diligence and derisks partnerships. What the well advised do differently is treat the position as a living piece of analysis rather than a founding myth. They know what their product is in substance, they know which reform touches them and they decide their pathway while there is still a choice of pathways. The alternative is the BNPL experience: the perimeter moves, and the timeline belongs to someone else.

Frequently Asked Questions

Our terms say we are not providing a financial product. Does that settle it?

No. The perimeter turns on substance and rights, not labels, so drafting can support a position but cannot create one. The question is what rights your customer actually has under the arrangement.

Does the payments licensing reform apply to my business yet?

The reform is in progress rather than in force, but the existing perimeter applies today and the reform window is when positioning is cheapest. Whether to act now or prepare for the new settings is a sequencing decision worth making deliberately.

We are not a digital asset business. Why does the 2027 regime matter to us?

Because it is an adjacent example of the same movement. The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026 (Cth) commencing on 9 April 2027 shows the perimeter widening by legislation, and the direction matters even to businesses the specific regime never touches.

When should the perimeter analysis happen?

Before the position is tested by someone with leverage. In practice that means before a major partnership, funding round or launch, and immediately if the product has evolved since the position was last examined.

Is this analysis expensive?

It is a fixed fee exercise, and it is a fraction of what a failed diligence process or a forced restructure costs. The expensive version of this analysis is the one someone else does to you.

If your business is built on a perimeter position, find out whether it holds. Read more on our payments licensing page, Contact Astris Law for a fixed fee consultation or call (07) 3519 5616.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such. While we take reasonable care to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, we make no representations or warranties as to its completeness, currency or reliability. We accept no liability for any loss or damage arising directly or indirectly from the use of, or reliance on, this website's content. You should always seek professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances before acting on any information in this article. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.