Bank provides money management advice

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Officers of the Royal Bank are adamant that they do not want to be seen as opportunists slathering after the money Aboriginal people have obtained or will obtain through residential school survivors' settlements such as the Alternative Dispute Resolution process. They point out that it is their efforts since about 1989 in establishing respectful business relationships with Aboriginal people that have resulted in the Residential School Survivors Society choosing the bank as its financial institution.

Bank employees stressed to Birchbark that they want to assist Aboriginal people to make good money management choices and to invest their money derived from the ADR process or from any other source wisely.

Harry Willmot, market manager of Aboriginal banking based in Ajax, explained the bank's role:

"Making good choices is what we're all about. It's being able to provide our clients with the financial knowledge and the skill for them to be able to make informed decisions, and not have decisions made for them."

Because some may receive substantial sums of money that they have previously not been accustomed to managing, the bank has put a report called "Some ideas to help you manage your financial future" on its Web site at www.royalbank.com/aboriginal. The advice there applies to all personal financial transactions, however, and not just the one-time large ones.

The bank's ADR initiative was born in British Columbia and so far has had limited application in Ontario.

Speaking personally, rather than on behalf of the bank, Willmot said, "I think there is a bit of reluctance just to jump on to this process and to do the quick fix. I think B.C. has moved ahead and I think they have probably taken the lead in this initiative, but I don't see a lot of clients ... in Ontario yet."

He added he believes one of the reasons for this is that "we have had more of a history with the mainstream population than Western Canada does." Ontario has long-standing treaties, for example; whereas British Columbia does not.

That aside, Willmot said a key part of his bank's strategic priorities "in the Aboriginal market in particular" is "the transfer of financial knowledge and skill. ...For us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors, we had to really look at what our clients needed and what they were looking for themselves.

On reserve, Willmot said Royal Bank deals with about 47 per cent of the Aboriginal bank clients in Ontario.

But Willmot noted the rapid urbanization of Aboriginal people since the Second World War, and said the bank has been developing a strategy to serve off-reserve clientele better since 1993.

"There is a growing urban need for financial institutions to really get their arms around that and put their hands around the clients that are out there. And provide them with budgeting-how to apply for a loan-what is credit all about.

That is why the bank's Web site includes a 10-point plan for individuals to consider when making financial decisions:

? Understand your

spending habits

? Know where your

money goes

? Get your family involved

? Look at your total

financial situation

? Establish your

financial priorities

? Budget on a monthly basis

? Develop a good credit rating

? Start a savings plan

? Invest your money

? Choose the right investment.

Each point is followed by a basic explanation, and the site provides contact information for Aboriginal banking officials in the various regions.

Another page on the site goes into family budgeting analysis, or the calculation of income and expenditures.

Other banks offer the same kinds of services and information, but the Web sites Birchbark looked at are not so Aboriginal-specific and either focus more on the corporate investor or tend to assume their clients have basic financial knowledge.

Willmot said the basic financial information they put online is meant to get people thinking-if they are struggling to meet their financial obligations each month-abut whether they need to have every phone service and cable television option available to them. He said, "you would be amazed" at how many people are paying for services they neither need nor can afford.

Willmot added that he believed from a banking perspective, it is important for them to separate itself from the residential school issue.

"This advice and counsel is open to anybody, as far as I am concerned. I've got currently on the go in Ontario a similar process in the works with the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres.

"There's approximately 30 friendship centres across the province, and we've made a commitment to them that we will go into a friendship centre ...and sit down with the membership there and do ...seminars on fairly rudimentary issues. Credit, how do I save money, how do I budget, how do I pay myself first while still paying the bills. (We) try to give people a shot in the arm, give them an opportunity, give them some tools to work with."