Financial Inclusion Action Plans
Financial Counselling Australia is pleased to support the release on Friday 25th November 2016 of the first Financial Inclusion Action Plans from 12 trailblazers in industry, community and government.
Financial Inclusion Action Plans have the potential to address some significant problems in our community including a lack of access to safe, fair and affordable financial products.
This has seen a continuing growth in high cost lending, such as rent to own contracts and payday loans, which often leave people trapped in a cycle of debt. We are also witnessing continued growth in for-profit financial difficulty businesses such as credit repair agencies, debt negotiators and budgeting services. These businesses charge high up front costs and are often not the right option for people in debt.
Part of the solution is better access to financial counselling and we are pleased that a number of the new plans specifically include this as an action.
A link to a youtube video from the trailblazer organisations is here.
The trailblazers are:
- AnglicareSA
- ANZ
- Bank Australia
- BaptistCare
- Commonwealth Bank
- Energy Australia
- HESTA
- NAB
- Queensland Government
- Suncorp
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Westpac