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A member of a New Zealand Māori Council subcommittee looking at housing affordabilty says the time is right for a Māori bank.
Matthew Tukaki says the idea was got little traction when it was raised in the early 2000s.
Since then the Māori economy has grown, including money from treaty settlements, but Māori still struggle to get basic loans and mortgages.
He says a Māori-focused financial institution is a way to get around some of the structural prejudices involved in credit rating and banking.
"I think we need to drill in to what does that system look like, why does it exclude so many of our people and not just our people, Pacific Islanders and the Pasifika community are wrapped up in this, and how do we make it fairer. Now, if those major banks don’t want to get on board with this, it builds the business case for an independent, standalone iwi bank," Mr Tukaki says.
He says the government’s policies to support Māori housing won’t work if they don’t tackle problems with accessing finance.
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