Bankruptcy administrations Australia-wide have fallen to a 24-year low, new statistics from the Australian Financial Security Authority showed.
Despite a commonly held belief that Millennials are money wasters, the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) has revealed that 68 per cent of people applying for bankruptcy are 30 years or older.
The data also highlighted that Millennials reportedly have 30 per cent more in savings and are 45 per cent less likely to have a credit card, when compared with older generations.
What this potentially means, is that a significant number of Millennials have abstained from acquiring unsecured credit card debt and instead are reliant on adequate savings.
Strong changes to government regulations have had an impact on younger Aussies accessing money.
While we don’t think the stats necessarily reflect a decline in the number of people experiencing financial difficulty, it seems the decline in personal insolvencies are likely to be indicative of more protection and options being made available to consumers compared to just five years ago, let alone 24.
Generational trends aside, it’s clear that strict new credit regulations and reforms, teamed with higher levels of transparency in credit reporting, are ultimately making it harder for people to incur unsecured debts like credit cards.
In addition to the royal banking commission, the major drivers of change to debt statistics have included reforms to the National Consumer Credit Act 2009, amendments to the banking code, as well as consumer credit reform that incorporated comprehensive credit reporting.
All of the changes flagged have come into effect in the previous two years.