Savings group Banksia has collapsed, putting thousands of customers savings at risk.
LIFE has been tough enough these past few years for Warrnambool resident Margaret Cain.
Her 76-year-old husband has been battling cancer, that started in his bowel and spread to his liver and has led to weekly chemotherapy sessions.
Yesterday, the elderly couple were dealt another blow with the collapse of finance group Banksia Securities.
They now face a nervous wait to find out whether the $30,000 they’d worked hard to save over their lives, and hoped to leave their children as a small inheritance, would be lost.
As a non-bank lender, Banksia offers investors high interest on debentures and then lends these funds out as mortgages or commercial property loans. But given Banksia does not hold a banking licence, the funds in the debentures are not backed by a deposit guarantee.
“I’m more worried ... what affect this has on my husband,” Mrs Cain, 76, told radio station 3AW.
“My husband’s been battling cancer for four years and he has chemo once a week on a Monday.
“When I was told yesterday I just didn’t know how it’s going to affect him, because he’s going to have a cat scan and we’ll find out on Monday how it is.” The Cains have invested with Banksia for the past 20 years, and are now among thousands of farmers and other regional Victorians who face a nervous wait.
Just last week Mrs Cain said she and her husband added $4000 to their Banksia investment, and yesterday received notification in the mail that it had been completed - the same day she was informed that the company had collapsed.