Bank-xiety is a fitting term to describe feelings of worry, nervousness or uneasiness caused by distrust toward your bank.

It’s also the headline for a new campaign by young challenger bank, ME, to prompt Australians to talk about their bank-xiety and take action on these feelings of distrust by considering their options.

Now rolling out across Australia, ME’s bank-xiety campaign is appearing in newspapers, radio, online publications, outdoor media and social media.

It also has its own microsite and Urban Dictionary definition.

The campaign is based on findings that reveal Australian’s distrust toward banks is almost universal – 94 per cent agree banks don’t act in their best interest, yet only 14 per cent of Australians are proactively doing something about their bank-xiety.

ME chief experience officer, Ingrid Purcell said: “We want to start the conversation and tell a compelling story, starting with encouraging people to recognise their bank-xiety and ending with how to beat it.

“It’s not a new phenomenon – Australians have always felt ambivalent towards their banks – but it is a newly
established term that defines the feeling.”

As part of the campaign, media influencers were sent a bank-xiety pack, including a burner phone – with which they could reach a bank-xiety hotline that played calming music – as well as bank-xiety “pills” (M&Ms), and a bank-xiety stress ball.

Across social media, Facebook users will begin to see a ME meditation ad that asks users to “stop scrolling and take a deep breath with ME”.

They can also swipe through the side-effects of bank-xiety.

ME also took to the streets to hear first-hand from Aussies about their bank-xiety and found a sense of inertia towards the issue.

ME CEO Jamie McPhee added: “Unfortunately many Australians have become accustomed to believing that all banks are the same and have stopped looking for other options.”

He continued: “Like many issues, bank-xiety sits just below the surface.

“By providing Australians with the language to describe what 94 per cent of the adult population is experiencing, we want to empower them to rid themselves of this feeling for good.”