Financial exclusion is a very real issue in Australia, and research carried out for ANZ by Chant Link and Associates in 2005 shows:
- Around 120,000 people, or 0.8% of Australia’s adult population, could be considered totally excluded with no ownership of financial products.
- Around six per cent of adults have minimal financial access, owning only a transaction account.
- Risk factors influencing financial exclusion include unemployment, poverty, disability or long-term illness and low education levels.
- Factors causing long-term financial exclusion include financial illiteracy, learned dysfunctional credit or savings behaviour and intergenerational exclusion.
- Special factors affect Indigenous Australians who are the only ethnic group in Australia consistently associated with financial exclusion.
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