From left: Financial Mentors Awhina Ulutuki and Jennifer Gini at Petone Budget Service It’s the bucket test at Petone Budget Service (PBS) which helps bring the financial message home for some of the most vulnerable people in their community. Based in the Wellington region, the budgeting service...
Afterpay, Laybuy, Oxipay… the list of buy now pay later (BNPL) services goes on. But financial capability and budgeting experts have a word of warning of people using BNPL later services. While these services can be used to people’s advantage, people need to be aware of the...
FinCap welcomes the opportunity to comment on the District Court (Protection of Judgement Debtors with Disabilities) Amendment Bill (The Bill). Hardship experienced throughout Aotearoa should not be compounded by unreasonable debt collection action. We strongly support the Bill as it will ensure people with disabilities are...
FinCap is pleased to announce Ruth Smithers has been appointed as Chief Executive. Ruth is an experienced leader and senior manager in the not for profit and government sectors in health and social services organisations. Her most recent role was as Deputy Chief Executive at Tui Ora,...
FinCap welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Updated draft Responsible Lending Code 2020 (the revised code). Financial Mentors across Aotearoa New Zealand regularly see the harm caused by irresponsible lending of unaffordable loans or lenders not offering appropriate and realistic assistance where borrowers have difficulty...
This research paper sets out the results to date (April 2019) of the research of the FinCap/Community Law Canterbury/Victoria University/BERL team on interest rate caps. Introducing an interest rate cap was one of the options proposed by MBIE in its June 2018 Discussion Paper “Review...
Lending is an essential part of a functioning economy, but some loans do more harm than good. The New Zealand market for credit has changed over the past decade. While the banking sector has grown, the non-bank sector has become increasingly populated with third-tier lenders, offering...
In 2018, 76 financial capability and budgeting services were surveyed on High cost short term loans, debt collection and other consumer credit issues. This report is a summary of those findings. A collaboration of FinCap, Justice Innovation Centre and Community Law Canterbury, and funded by the...
FinCap welcomes the open letter sent by the Commerce Commission to New Zealand’s three mobile phone operators mobile telecommunications companies, telling them that they need to guard against overspending by mobile phone customers. The open letter from the Commerce Commission is a proactive step to ensuring...
FinCap welcome’s the Government's announcement that they are bringing forward the introduction of the 100% repayment limit and ban on compounding interest for high cost loans, and the $30 cap on default fees for all loans, through the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and other Regulatory Urgent Measures)...