Royal Commission Looks At Experiences With Financial Services Entities In Regional And Remote Communities

The Royal Commission has announced that the fourth round of public hearings will be held in Brisbane at the Brisbane Magistrates Court, 363 George Street, Brisbane from Monday 25 June to Friday 29 June, and in Darwin at the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Supreme Court Building, State Square, Darwin from Monday 2 July to Friday 6 July.

The fourth round of public hearings will focus on issues affecting Australians who live in remote and regional communities, which relate to farming finance, natural disaster insurance, and interactions between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and financial services entities.

The Commission presently intends to deal with these issues for the purposes of the public hearings by reference to the case studies set out below.

	Topic	Case Studies
1.	Farming finance	CBA (Bankwest) Rabobank NAB CBA Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (Rural Bank) ANZ (Landmark)
2.	Natural disaster insurance	Youi Suncorp The case studies will consider issues arising from: Tropical Cyclone Debbie in March 2017; the hail storm in Broken Hill in November 2016; the bushfires near Wye River in December 2015; and the floods in the Hunter Valley in April 2015.
3.	Interactions between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and financial services entities	Select AFSL, trading as Let’s Insure ACBF Funeral Plans ANZ

During the hearings, evidence will also be given by consumers of their particular experiences. The entities that are the subject of consumer evidence will be informed by the Commission.

Further topics may be included and the list above will be updated accordingly before the hearings commence.