Aotearoa Credit Union says it is drawing up a memorandum of understanding with four Whanau Ora providers helping iwi members.
It is offering budgeting advice to tangata whenua and helping them to improve their financial knowledge.
Union executive Tuhi Leef says he is finding that people's needs vary. Some, he says, want enough money for a hakari, or feast, with the whanau on Christmas Day, while others might be looking for funds to build a house on papakainga, or ancestral land.
Mr Leef, of Ngapuhi, says the work's all kanohi ki te kanohi or face-to-face meetings with Maori.
He says 45% of the union's members are Maori.
