She alleges her ex freezing joint bank accounts, cancelling credit cards, removing joint funds and redirecting business income amounted to financial abuse. Photo / SuppliedBut Women’s Refuge says abuse through joint accounts is common. “There’s inconsistency in the level of support and what can be done”, she says - not helped by the fact that financial abuse is seldom recognised as abuse in its own right. But coercive control itself is not a specific criminal offence, while in countries we like to compare ourselves to, that is changing - in the UK, coercive control is a criminal offence, and in Australia, Queensland and New South Wales have introduced similar laws. Your bank is, of course, meant to be the neutral party; they can hardly take sides in a relationship breakdown.

Source: New Zealand Herald March 14, 2026 22:32 UTC