Funding partnership to support indigenous businesses

Westpac has announced a unique funding partnership with indigenous-led organisation First Australian Capital (FAC), to help provide access to capital to emerging indigenous businesses

The partnership will help ensure the sustainability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander small businesses so they can qualify for mainstream lending products to help start and grow their business. FAC will work to provide support to businesses once their loan is guaranteed by Westpac and FAC in equal shares. It will also help businesses become more “loan ready” through readiness checks and services offered pro bono by its service providers across legal services, IT, marketing and sales, inventory and supply chain management.

“We are committed to backing all Australian businesses, including supporting the growing Indigenous sector businesses and entrepreneurs through our great partnership with FAC,” Suzi Hullick, Westpac’s National Head of Indigenous Banking, said.

“We recognise indigenous business is an important growth element of Australia’s economic recovery. That’s why we’ve come up with a unique shared security structure which will help transition those businesses to become sustainable in their own right to qualify for mainstream lending products with the confidence to pursue the next best thing for them.”

Leah Armstrong, Co-founder of FAC, highlighted the fact that their partnership with Westpac will plug a huge gap in the market.

“Historically, indigenous entrepreneurs with viable businesses have been unable to access mainstream banking because the barriers are higher,” Armstrong said. “There’s much less of the inter-generational wealth transfer or home ownership you need as security for loans, and they don’t have a track record of trading.

“We’re definitely seeing a lot more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people considering business ownership as their way of achieving economic outcomes for their community as well as their own wellbeing and family wealth,” Armstrong added.