New Zealanders trust brokers and finance companies least, but love housing

A new RaboPlus survey of Financial Confidence has found New Zealanders are least confident in finance companies, share brokers, financial advisors and fund managers, while they are most confident in banks, building societies, credit unions and insurers. The opt-in online survey in August by TNS Conversa of 1,000 New Zealanders found a net minus 20% were confident in finance companies, while a net 13% were confident in fund managers, 14% were confident in financial advisors and 2% were confident in share brokers. A net 39% were confident in banks and 23% were confident in credit unions and building societies. Confidence was highest for home and content insurers with 42%, while confidence in life insurers was at a net 28% and health insurers were at a net 24%. However, the levels of satisfaction for finance companies improved when respondents with experience of a finance company were asked if their relationship was good and whether they would recommend investing in finance companies to family or friends. The survey found 30% were happy with their finance company and 47% of those would recommend others invest in the finance company. New Zealanders were just as happy with fund managers on 31%, but were happier with share brokers on 44% and 48% with financial advisers. RaboPlus General Manager Mike Heath said the new survey provided a basis for tracking financial confidence, an area that was critical to the stability of the financial system over the long run. "New Zealanders are wary and trust and confidence in the financial sector has taken a battering. The survey results show people are more likely to keep their money with the bank in the short term, or invest in managed funds - a result that is likely to have been influenced by the uptake of KiwiSaver," Heath said in a statement. New Zealanders were most confident about the outlook for housing investments with 64% seeing either improvement or stability, while only 38% saw improvement or stability in financial investments, including shares, finance companies, managed funds and banks. One in 10 New Zealand planned to invest in property in the next 6 months, while only 4% planned to put money in a finance company. Just over half said they would invest in a term deposit in a bank in the next 6 months. Surprisingly, 26% said they would put money into managed funds, including Kiwisaver, although this may be skewed by those who defaulted into Kiwisaver. "The survey also seems to confirm the Reserve Bank Governor's concerns that Kiwis are returning to investing more in the housing market than via other financial channels," Heath said. Here is the full Powerpoint presentation with the survey below and a link to the full PDF for printing.