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 3 weeks ago

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

2 months 4 weeks ago

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

5 months ago

ASIC has suspended the Australian Financial Services Licence of a Melbourne-based financial advice firm....

2 weeks ago

The corporate regulator has issued infringement notices to three AFSLs whose financial advisers provided personal advice to a retail client while unregistered....

2 weeks 5 days ago

ASIC has released the results of its first adviser exam to be held in 2025, with 241 candidates attempting the test....

3 weeks 3 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND