Financial Resilience vs Banks: stop indiscriminate selling

Financial Resilience vs Banks: MoneyHub demands banks stop indiscriminately selling financial products to everyone and anyone

MoneyHub is ramping up the publication of independent resources to guide New Zealanders through important financial decisions where objective information and transparency is lacking. Banks are heavily invested in extracting more and more money from their customers, and selling financial products fit for an individual’s needs may not be top of the list. MoneyHub is combatting the pressure to sell with a range of comparison guides to improve everyday financial resilience.

Citing a 2017 report from the Australian Centre of Social Impact, Financial Resilience is a combination of an individual’s ‘Economic Resources’, ‘Financial Knowledge’, ‘Access to Financial Products’ and ‘Social Capital’.

MoneyHub Senior Research Christopher Walsh said:

“The ability to meet living expenses is a huge issue for middle New Zealand right now, and the ability to raise funds for an emergency is being stretched. We’re not impressed when we hear of banks yet again putting profits before people and aggressively selling irrelevant (and expensive) financial products to our most vulnerable fellow Kiwis and leaving them short of money and ultimately worse off”.

“Financial Resilience is also built from having the right insurance, banking and credit products and services. MoneyHub’s leading page on car insurance, for example, is attracting thousands of users every week, informing readers about their options and saving them money”.

“MoneyHub has heard from New Zealanders nationwide who have been pestered at banks when it comes to being offered insurance. We want to bring this situation into the public domain to get the banks to stop this behaviour, or at least give the customer the right never to be asked. In some cases, we’ve heard of people buying policies out of politeness because the bank teller had helped them with their standard query”.

“First Union’s recently published survey data confirms that overall, 87% of respondents who work for a number of banks reported feeling pressure to sell financial products; and 92% feel the same or more pressure to sell financial products than they did a year ago (50% more; 42% the same). The survey results suggest it is profits before people on planet bank”.

The responses by Bank were as follows:

“Transparency of financial products is generally lacking in New Zealand. An individual’s willingness to seek financial information is an essential factor for improving financial resilience, and for this reason we’ve invested heavily in our online resource being easy to navigate and ultra-fast to display on any device. Whether it’s insurance, banking, investing or everyday money saving, MoneyHub is aggressively researching and publishing comparisons and guides that empower individuals and families”.

“Like mortgages and other lending, banks ultimately have a responsibility to make sure that the customers who buy their add-on financial products like insurance have sufficient financial resources to meet their everyday needs”.

“We’re doubling down on the publication targets for guides of financial products and services in Q2 and Q3. We aim to give our users the confidence to buy and use financial products and services, strengthening their financial resilience”.

About MoneyHub: MoneyHub is an independent financial comparison website, with an average of 75,000 unique users per month. More: MoneyHub

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