Recently we spoke to members about the issue of Debt Stress in our society and throughout our industry. Click here for a copy of the Debt Stress publication. 

It has now been widely acknowledged that the US sub-prime economic woes are a direct result of poor lending practices, primarily driven by pay and remuneration structures that reward volumes of sales, not professional and responsible financial solutions based on customer needs.

As a result of the issues that your union, consumer and industry groups have been raising, the Federal Government has released a Green Paper (discussion paper) on the regulation of credit in Australia.

FSU will be responding to this paper making clear that we support regulation of credit products that sees the end of poor lending practices, that promotes training and professionalism throughout our industry and that decouples remuneration from target based outcomes.

Follow this link to read the government’s Green Paper. 

FSU members can make comments directly to government by COB Tuesday, 1 July, 2008 and comments can be submitted to financialservicesgreenpaper@treasury.gov.au . Alternatively, you can tell us about your experience and we’ll seek to include it in the union’s submission. Send your story to debtstress@fsunion.org.au

FSU is continuing to work with our industry and stakeholders in developing a Charter of Responsible Lending that provides confidence to consumers and stability for the finance sector. We will argue for the Charter’s adoption as part of the regulation of credit by the Federal Government.

Responsible lending, professionalism in our industry, manageable workloads and reasonable targets, access to training and further education, appropriate staffing levels and better jobs and careers are all part of your unions objectives of building a better finance industry for members.