The National Credit Regulator's company secretary, Lesiba Mashapa, says the watchdog body is winning the war against unscrupulous credit providers. But the evidence does not back this up. For one thing, the steep rise in the number of cases referred to the National Consumer Tribunal suggests that the NCR hasn't discouraged shady credit providers from trying their luck.In the past year, the regulator investigated 153 cases, issued 36 compliance notices and referred 42 cases to the tribunal.Companies probed include African Bank, which collapsed spectacularly in August under a mountain of bad debt, online credit provider Wonga, Capfin, and even high-flying banking giant Capitec.Yet, for all the tough talk of "cracking down" on shady lenders, the regulator's cases against some operators collapsed, and the tribunal issued fines equal to just R1.8-million in the past year.Many lenders managed to talk their way out of mega fines.In 2013, the NCR referred African Bank to the tribunal and recommended a R300-million fine for reckless lending. After behind-closed-doors negotiations, the fine was knocked down to R20-million.Stories such as this haven't helped the NCR's reputation as toothless.Some credit providers, however, say the regulator has overstepped the mark.Ubank, which is owned by mining group Thebe, is still waiting for its day in court to defend itself against reckless lending accusations."We are willing to have a simple sit-down meeting to discuss the matter should the NCR afford us the courtesy" says Luthando Vutula, Ubank's CEO.He is furious that the NCR went to the media to publicise the matter before it was heard by the tribunal.Vutula said the NCR had been investigating Ubank for almost a year and had come to no final conclusion.Mashapa tells another story.He says that the NCR met Ubank, but could not reach a consensus - so he referred the matter to the tribunal.Mashapa says he is under no obligation to sit down with Ubank or anyone - "we do it as a courtesy".The regulator doesn' t always win its cases. I t recently lost against Capitec at the tribunal, a matter it is now appealing.Capitec was accused of contravening the National Credit Act by overcharging customers on interest. The bank dismissed this as a "fishing expedition" by the regulator.The tribunal eventually dismissed the NCR's case, saying the investigation wasn't based on an initial customer complaint.Mashapa disagrees, saying the effect of this ruling is that "we can only investigate when we have complaints", which would prevent the regulator from pre-emptively dealing with issues in the lending sector.It isn't cheap for the NCR to do its job - each case costs on average R400000, partly because it often outsources the more complex cases to senior litigators.The regulator is still probing the "Buy a new car for R699" scheme, which imploded last year and left many customers unable to service the payments for their vehicles.Mashapa says the results of that investigation will be announced before the end of the year.However, the NCR's many critics will say this is far too long to spend investigating a case that has already left consumers stranded.Embarrassingly, the NCR was also forced to retreat on claims it made against two other credit providers, Wonga.com and Capfin.Wonga.com allowed customers to borrow up to R2500 over 48 days at a hefty 27% interest rate. Repeat customers can then borrow up to R8000.Last year, the NCR charged Wonga.com - which this week appointed Brett van Aswegen as its new CEO - with contravening the act by not obtaining proof of borrowers' income and living expenses to determine if they had the ability to repay the loans.The regulator said Wonga.com did not keep records to support its "affordability assessments", and had no documentation of the steps it took after customers defaulted.Wonga.com, however, won the case, forcing the regulator to withdraw its claims. It does not have to rescind its loans.Capfin, whose parent company, Southern View Finance, is listed on the JSE's ALtX exchange, also won its case against the regulator but says it is now taking extra steps to provide information to its customers anyway.In the face of this, Mashapa says, "we are trying our best".He says the regulator could do with more funding.NCR's staff costs for the year to last March rose from R54.3-million to R57.5-million, and operating expenditure increased from R25-million to R30-million...