Clients Needing Extra Care

We understand that life doesn’t always run smoothly, and you may find yourself needing help when dealing with difficult and challenging circumstances.

It could be that your life isn’t going as planned because you are suffering from:

• Age-related impairment

  • You may have trouble undertaking normal activities if you have a physical or mental age-related impairment.

• Cognitive impairment

  • Having a cognitive impairment makes it hard to remember, learn new things, concentrate or make decisions affecting everyday life.

• Mental illness.

  • This health problem affects how you feel, think, behave and interact with other people.

• Serious illness

  • A serious illness can impact your ability to earn an income and put a serious dent in your finances.

• Any other personal, or financial circumstance causing significant detriment

  • This could range from the loss of a loved one to a relationship breakdown or a natural disaster.

Protecting your money

• When your circumstances may lead to financial difficulties, we can work with you, or the person you have granted a power of attorney, to help you protect your money in line with your best interests.

Family or Domestic Violence

• Domestic violence, abuse and intimidation between people who are currently or have previously been in an intimate relationship are all forms of violence . The violence is used to control and dominate the other person. It causes fear, physical harm and/or psychological harm. Domestic and family violence does not have to be physical, the abuse can be verbal, emotional or economic.
• We understand that privacy and confidentiality can be critical to safety in any domestic and family violence situation, we will always take care to protect your personal information in line with our privacy policy.

If you tell us of your circumstance, we can help you:

• Set up a single point of contact within the Bank to ensure confidentiality
• Change your online banking login details, password and PINs to help protect the security of your information.
• Change arrangements for anything we may need to send to you. For example, by nominating the mailing address of a trusted family member or PO Box. We can also arrange for any new debit cards to be delivered for collection at your local branch.
• Change joint account operating authority from one to operate to two to operate.
• Understand your power of attorney arrangement, if you have one. If you have revoked an existing power of attorney or appointed a new attorney, we will review the new arrangement and update our records accordingly.
• Clients experiencing domestic and family violence who would like to discuss financial difficulty or concerns in relation to their loans, including payment of joint loans, can refer to our Financial Difficulty page to find out how we can help. We will determine assistance on a case by case basis.
• Other support services

Financial Abuse

• Financial abuse is a serious issue involving the misuse of money, financial resources, property or assets without the owner’s knowledge or consent.
• It can happen to anyone, but some people are more at risk, including elderly clients, people with a disability, people with mental illness or experiencing emotional challenges, or people who are socially isolated.

Elderly Clients

• Elder abuse can be defined as “a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person”. This may be committed by formal and informal carers, supporters, representatives or others.

Warning signs may include:

• Another person is accessing or controlling your bank accounts or using them without your consent.
• You are being pressured to change your will, power of attorney or other legal arrangements.
• A friend or family member is pressuring you to appoint them as your enduring power of attorney.
• Your signature has been forged on cheques, bank accounts or legal documents.
• You are being pressured to sign a document, such as a blank withdrawal form or blank loan application, or feel you are being misled them about what they are asking you to sign.
• Your bills haven't been paid, even though you have entrusted someone to do this for you.
• Your money is being used for a purpose other than what you wanted.
• You are being pressured to invest money in schemes that sound too good to be true.
• Large or unexplained withdrawals or transfers have been made from your bank account.
• You are being isolated from your family or friends, or threatened with being isolated if you don't give the abuser what they want.
• You are feeling pressured to act as a guarantor when you feel you don’t understand enough about the transaction and the risks involved, or simply don’t want to act in a guarantor role.

How we can help in cases of financial abuse

If you tell us that you suspect financial abuse, we will work with you to find a suitable way to meet your banking needs. Depending on your situation, this may involve changing how you or other account holders are able to access your account. We may:

• Help you to change online banking login details and PINs.
• Change joint account operating authority from one to operate to two to operate.
• Seek an internal legal review of power of attorney.
• Client level and account level blocking for Rabobank Online Savings (for debits and credits, debits only, credits only and no entries) until written instructions are provided or agreement with the clients on how to operate.
• We will respect your right to confidentiality at all times, and ensure your personal information is protected.

Hardship/Financial difficulty

• If you are experiencing financial difficulty because of any of these challenging circumstances, we can help.
• Other support services.