The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed to hand over control over all remaining areas of consumer credit to the federal government by June.

Mortgages, mortgage broking, margin lending, payday lending and financial counseling services will all fall under the supervision of the federal government.

After today’s COAG meeting in Perth, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters that this is a necessary reform in an area which has been “crying out for reform for a long, long time”.