The responsible lending obligations of instant cash loan lenders in Australia, according to the Regulatory Guide 209 administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), makes all lenders aware of their legal responsibilities in that there are certain aspects that lenders have to legally take into account when assessing a borrower's financial capacity to repay an instant cash loan. ASIC expects that the loan lender will base the assessment of a borrower's capacity to repay a loan on the reasonable inquiries that the lender has made regarding the borrower's financial situation and the reasonable steps that the lender has taken to verify the borrower's financial situation. Lenders should also consider the likely maximum amount to be repaid under the authorised loan contract, which has to include all loan fees and charges, when determining whether a borrower has the financial capacity to repay the loan or not.

All lenders of instant cash loan lenders in Australia need to be informed that he Explanatory Memorandum states that the purpose of undertaking reasonable inquiries about the borrower's financial ability to pay the loan back, is to establish a reasonable understanding of the borrower's ability to meet all the repayments, fees, charges and transaction costs in order to comply with the proposed loan contract. ASIC would expect the lender to take into account these types of issues when assessing whether a borrower will be able to repay the instant cash loan. Where two or more borrowers jointly apply for a loan, loan lenders may assess each of the borrower's financial capacity to repay the loan back individually or consider the reasonable inquiries made about their combined financial situation and the reasonable steps taken to verify that financial situation.

Lenders of instant cash loans in Australia also need to also realise that they legally have to know that the borrower will be able to pay back all the costs, fees and charges of the loan, at the end of the loan period. As an example of this, a borrower accesses or logs into the website of a loan lender in order to apply for and consequently submit an application, online, for an instant cash loan. This application, for the sake of this example, will be an application to the loan lender to refinance a loan. When the loan lender assesses the borrower's application, they will need to take into account all of the costs of changing loan lending contracts to determine the borrower's ability to meet the obligations of the new loan contract over the term of the contract, at the time the assessment is made. This would also include any fees for using the loan lender's services.