Dealing with Debt Traps
Loan applications falsified
As a minor Westpac shareholder I was amazed today to read in the Sydney Morning Herald that Westpac is reported to have paid $7.6m in compensation to customers for the fraudulent conduct of its subsidiary RAMS, by falsifying loan application details.
Over a decade ago I discovered that a Westpac bank manager had done that to farmers applying for a loan to purchase a property that had been recommended to them by that bank manager.
In another case decades ago Westpac allowed a young widow with young children to guarantee her brother’s business loan with a mortgage over her home. She had no financial or business knowledge at all. When the brother’s business failed Westpac sold up her home leaving her homeless.
Bank theft exempt from prosecution??
Why is the Federal Government not currently prosecuting the Westpac directors for fraud and breach of Corporations law. Probably because bank customers in their role as voters are not pushing the federal parliament to require honesty in the banking industry that they so obligingly deregulated. Deregulation takes the honesty out of banking and allows dishonest practices to flourish.
What can customers do?
The best and fastest way for any bank customers threatened by their bank is to send a Votergram outlining the issue to Federal Parliament. That message will go to each and every Member of Parliament. There are 226 of them. Some of them will most like help you. They are all-powerful. Borrowers usually do not realise that they have been trapped by the bank until they struggle to meet repayments. It may be because they fell ill,. They may have lost their job. Their business may have made losses instead of profits. Their farm may be suffering from bushfire, flood or drought. Politicians are very good at helping voters.
To reach the ones interested in helping you is why Votergrams go to them all. In any group of people only a few are interested in any one issue. On major policy issues you need a majority of MPs on side. Again going to all of them is the best way to achieve that.