Kiwibank backs down from blacklisting brothels after anger from sex workers

Wednesday, 22 July 2020

Sex workers say the bank’s initial stance would have pushed the industry further underground.

Kiwibank has changed its policy blacklisting brothels after an angry response from sex workers.

On Tuesday, Kiwibank published its responsible business banking policy, outlining sectors it will refuse to work with.

Casinos, fossil fuels, military-grade weapons and predatory lenders are all included – and so were brothels and strip clubs.

After discussion with the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective on Wednesday, the bank has recategorised the adult entertainment industry as a “sensitive sector”, a spokeswoman for the bank said.

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“This means Kiwibank will continue to bank businesses in that sector who can demonstrate good practice.”

She said they will continue to work with NZPC to develop its policy.

Dame Catherine Healy said the bank’s original policy was “not helpful” for sex workers.

Dame Catherine Healy of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) said while she was pleased to see the bank change tack, “it could have been avoided”.

NZPC met with Kiwibank a couple of weeks ago, she said, and cautioned them against introducing the policy as it was “not a helpful policy for sex workers”.

Although individual sex workers were never part of the policy, targeting brothel owners had a knock-on effect on the people who worked for them, she said.

Brothel owners already had to prove they did not hold certain criminal convictions, she said, and making them “demonstrate good practice” was holding them to higher standards than other businesses.

Trafficking, exploitation and modern slavery was a problem in other industries, she said, but it was “easier to roll the sex industry out”.

Wellington brothel owner Mary Brennan questioned how she would be expected to prove “best practice” to a bank.

After 25 years as a madam, she said being treated differently to other businesses was a “constant disappointment”.

She said she had been refused an overdraft – not with Kiwibank – and she knew of sex workers who had been turned down by banks when they were honest about their profession.

Bella Petite, a Wellington escort who has an independent business, knows what that’s like.

It’s impossible to get a bank loan, she said, which means that for every improvement she wants to make to her business, she has to raise the capital first.

The bank’s initial decision to put brothels in the same category as casinos, tobacco recreational drugs reinforced the stereotype of sex workers as “a woman on the street, probably with a needle in her arm”.

“They don’t understand that when they do that they push us further underground,” she said.

As a business owner, it’s frustrating – but it also takes a personal toll.

“It’s exhausting, it’s so exhausting.

“Most of us honestly just want to put food on the table and maybe buy a house.”