Former Productivity Commission chair and economist Dr Ganesh Nana is warning Māori against establishing their own bank because of legal and regulatory restrictions.
But he argues Māori have a great chance to unlock intergenerational wealth through other means.
This comes a week after a Māori-owned bank was proposed at Te Pūnuiotoka by Waikato leader Tukoroirangi Morgan.
His comment was captured and the video was shared online generating hundreds of comments.
The concept is a Māori-owned bank though Nana believes it’s more than that.
“You will need to have a very clear purpose in mind. What’s the object of this so that you can respond to undoubtedly all the hurdles that will be on your way because there are very powerful institutions within the financial system to maintain the status quo.”
Nana says Māori should not call it a bank. “Call yourself something else but that’s for Māori to sort out - but that’s your first legal obstacle. And then there are many other sorts of secondary obstacles around financial institutions that you will need to navigate.”
Māori having tino rangatiratanga in this space is something Nana says he supports.
“The current financial institutions are holding Māori back. We need a different way, you (Māori) need a different organisational institution to break those shackles, and it’s easier access to finance but it’s also that long-term perspective that kaupapa of intergeneration, call it what you like, intergeneration kaupapa and I think that’s where the gold might lie,” Nana says.
“Kiingi Tūheitia said quite openly earlier this year, it is about kōtahitanga. And, if Māori are serious about this, it needs to be a solid joined-up openly genuine symbol of unity of Māoridom. So it can’t be just iwi, it can’t be just Māori, it can’t be just corporates, it’s got to be an iwi Māori element that takes on as broad as you can with Māori. That wealth is going to be used for future generations and that New Zealand context of the development bank type model that we had in history but the 1960s and nation building type perspective,” Nana says.
The talk of Māori banks isn’t new. King Tāwhiao founded the first Māori bank, with Māori currency. In fact, Māori traded internationally in the early 1800s. Fast-forward to today and the Māori economy is worth $70 billion and is projected to reach $100 billion by 2030.
“We already know about Māori organisations, businesses, and corporations not being well served by the existing banks, unable to access finance and business advice and all of that sort of stuff. And so that is where I think the framing or the kaupapa of where a new bank lies.”
But Nana says traditional banks aren’t even taking up the digital mechanisms and technology now available either.
He sees a distinct role for the Maōri ‘bank’: “The true intergeneration investment whether it be the investment in workforce in training or looking after the whenua and all that sort of stuff which mainstream aren’t interested in.”