Financial Counselling Archives - Page 3 of 10 - Consumers' Federation of Australia

5 June , 2024

Consumer Groups Welcome New Credit Regulations for Buy Now, Pay Later

New laws regulating Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) have been announced today. Consumer groups respond as follows: Quotes attributable to Stephanie Tonkin, CEO of Consumer Action Law Centre “We welcome the Albanese Government’s new laws that regulate Buy Now, Pay Later as credit and introducing consumer protections. “Every day we speak to people in financial…

3 June , 2024

Research Finds Millions Experience Hardship, Yet Many Don’t Ask for Help

Australians are being urged to directly seek financial hardship assistance from their bank or lender, as new nationwide research released by ASIC’s Moneysmart sheds light on the state of financial hardship in Australia. The research found that 47% of Australian adults with debt, the equivalent of 5.8 million people, have struggled to make repayments in…

28 May , 2024

Increased Funding for Financial Crisis and Early Intervention Support

The Honourable Amanda Rishworth beamed into the recent annual Financial Counselling Australia conference in Perth a day after the budget announcement with some welcome news for the financial counselling sector. The Government will invest around $23 million over four years and ongoing, to provide more pre-crisis and early intervention supports, taking the total recent additional…

24 May , 2024

Community Consultation on Centrepay Reform

The Albanese Government has renewed its commitment to Centrepay reform, today announcing a range of short- and long-term priorities to improve the program. Australians who rely on Services Australia’s direct bill paying service Centrepay are encouraged to join advocates, business and other stakeholders to share their views and experiences as part of a nation-wide call…

13 May , 2024

Financial Abuse Inquiry – 1 month left for written submissions

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services commenced an inquiry into the systems and regulatory framework relating to financial abuse at the start of April 2024. The period for written submissions is now half-way through and will officially end on 14 June 2024. Submissions can be made publicly but the committee is also…

7 May , 2024

Financial Rights Publishes Report on Best Practice in Life Insurer Family Violence Policies

The 2023 Life Insurance Code of Practice (the Life Insurance Code) introduced a requirement for insurers to have family violence policies available online for their customers. For many life insurers this will be the first publicly available written policy indicating how they will support customers experiencing family violence. Family violence – in the form of…

7 May , 2024

US Consumer Protection Body Publishes Research Finding Higher Price Complexity Leads to Consumers Paying More

The United States of America’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published a new report, Price Complexity in Laboratory Markets, which indicates that complex pricings, or costs separated into various sub-prices, are typically more expensive and harder to compare – leading to consumers paying more. Based on the CFPB’s previous research, this increased complexity and…

3 May , 2024

Scam Alert Issued by ASIC as Scammers Change Methods

ASIC is warning consumers about an increase in the sophistication of fake bond and term deposit scams where scammers are impersonating little-known legitimate financial services businesses, often those without a website or digital footprint. Scammers are mirroring real businesses’ disclosure documents, addresses, International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs), Australian business numbers (ABNs) and Australian financial services…

1 May , 2024

ASIC to Consumers: Hang up on super cold callers

ASIC urges you to hang up on cold callers and scroll past social media click bait offering to help you compare and switch super funds. How super cold calling works Cold callers often use high pressure sales tactics to convince you to buy a product or sign up to a service. Their tactics include making…

29 April , 2024

Scam Losses Fall But A Long Road Ahead

The National Anti-Scam Centre’s collaborative efforts across government, law enforcement, consumer organisations and industry have boosted the community’s fight against financial crime, as the latest Targeting Scams report reveals a 13.1 per cent decline in reported losses to $2.74 billion in 2023. The report compiles data reported to Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE…

22 April , 2024

Financial Counselling Industry Fund Launches

More Australians will now have access to support from financial counsellors with the launch of the Financial Counselling Industry Fund (FCIF). The FCIF is the result of a collaboration between the financial counselling sector and a number of industries and companies – Australian Banking Association member banks, Australian Energy Council, Energy Networks Australia, Insurance Council…

18 April , 2024

Global Campaign for Transparent Digital Finance Launches

This week Consumers International launched a global campaign for transparent digital finance. Poor transparency has long been a problem in financial services, but now more than ever there are billions of consumers (1) using banks and other financial services and (2) using or connecting to these financial services digitally. Over mounting concern on both digital…