ATSI Australians suffering the most financial stress

indigenous-australians/financial-planning/financial-security/NAB/

29 May 2019
| By Laura Dew |
image
image
expand image

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are struggling with access to financial services and suffering the most financial stress in Australia, according to a report from the First Nations Foundation, the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) and National Australia Bank (NAB).

The report examined the financial resilience of the 620 people from the two social groups and found only one in 10 felt they were ‘financially secure’, half found it hard to meet living expenses and half suffered ‘financial stress’.

Some 75 per cent said they had had difficulty getting help from financial services organisations as they felt it was too expensive, they didn’t trust them, didn’t want to wait or were too proud to seek help.

CSI chief executive, Professor Kirsty Muir, said the findings demonstrated ways financial services firms could improve their relationship with indigenous people.

This included recognising cultural differences, using more interpreters, having staff visit rural communities and provide more information documents.

 “We need to come together to improve the availability, accessibility and appropriateness of financial products and services. We need to support people who are financially excluded to avoid predatory or high cost products that lock them into perpetual poverty,” she said.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks 1 day ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

2 weeks ago

One licensee has lost 27 advisers in the past week, now sitting at zero, according to the latest Wealth Data figures....

3 weeks 1 day ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS