About FCVic
FCVic is the peak body and professional association for financial counsellors in Victoria. We provide resources and support to financial counsellors and their agencies who assist vulnerable Victorians experiencing financial difficulty. We work with government, banks, utilities, debt collection and other stakeholders to improve approaches to financial difficulty for vulnerable Victorians.
As the peak body representing financial counsellors, we are not only advocates for the continued funding and expansion of the sector to meet community need, we are also the primary support and development body focused on professionalising and resourcing the sector.
We do this is a number of ways, including:
- Coordinating access to professional development through an ongoing training calendar;
- Developing and supporting of working groups and regional networks;
- Presenting an annual statewide conference focused on issues relevant to financial counsellors and their clients;
- Representing the sector to industry and government; and
- Assisting financial counsellors to meet the ongoing requirements which allow agencies who employ them to hold an ASIC Exemption
Our Purpose
- Advocate for vulnerable Victorian consumers who are experiencing financial difficulty*
- ensure the highest standards of professionalism in the provision of financial counselling services in Victoria by setting and maintaining best practice standards for members in all their dealings with clients
- Support the financial counselling sector to adopt and maintain best practice, through casework, advocacy and law reform
*We do this through our work supporting financial counsellors and through stakeholder relationships to create systemic change. We don’t provide direct advocacy for individuals.
Our Objectives
To ensure that:
- financial counsellors in Victoria are supported to comply with best practice;
- the financial counselling sector has secure, stable and sustainable funding;
- financial counselling has a high profile;
- vulnerable Victorians have an effective voice; and
- the Association is a strong, adaptive professional organisation that is valued by
members, government and other stakeholders.
Governance
FCVic is governed by a Board consisting of eight to ten financial counsellors elected by the membership, with up to two external directors co-opted for their expertise. The Annual General Meeting of the Association elects the Chair and ordinary members of the Board. The Board then elects its remaining office bearers: Deputy Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, at its first meeting.
FCVic is a small organisation with a robust approach to governance. FCVic is committed to good governance to ensure that it remains focussed on its purpose and delivers quality professional development to its members, to governments who rely on it for policy advice and to the disadvantaged consumers for whom its members act.
In 2015, FCVic conducted a review of its governance structure and processes. The review made 24 recommendations in regard to building a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities, developing a succinct statement of the organisation’s purpose, communicating the work of the Board to members, building the skill base of the Board, streamlining and strengthening Board processes and reporting by the Executive Officer. These recommendations were adopted over a period of 12 months in 2016.
A bit of history
FCVic commenced in 1978 as the Financial Counsellor’s Association of Victoria (FCAV) as a means for workers in the newly founded profession to build networks and address the systemic social issues they had identified through their casework.
The Association continued its advocacy work under the name Consumer Advocacy and Financial Counselling Association of Victoria (CAFCA) from 1990.
Following a review of the Constitution in 1996, CAFCA restructured to become the Financial & Consumer Rights Council (FCRC) – the Victorian peak body for both financial counsellors and consumer support workers (a now defunct role).
From 2010, FCRC led the sector through a process of significant professionalisation, including contributing to Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) on the development of national standards for the profession
Once again, in 2019 the members adopted a new Constitution and a new name for the organisation: Financial Counselling Victoria (FCVic).
Over our long history, FCVic has grown to include over 400 financial counsellor, student and organisation members, all of which are focused on different areas of consumer protection and financial counselling practice. Members of FCVic are very active in supporting each other through participation in regional and statewide networks, and case-specific working groups.
The systemic advocacy, policy and project work of FCVic has contributed to an increase in the number of financial counsellors in Victoria. This has also resulted in the development of numerous resources to assist consumers and caseworkers to deal with financial hardship, and to advocate strongly for those who need it most.
In 2020, FCVic published Financial Counselling in Victoria: the first 40 years which documents the history of our organisation from 1978-2018. For more information about this publication, please email: [email protected].Our people
FCVic Board
Click on the name to learn more about an FCVic Board member.
FCVic Staff
Click on the name to learn more about an FCVic team member.