Last week, Fair4All Finance CEO Kate Pender attended the BSA Annual Conference and in this blog she shares her thoughts on the event – and the opportunities for mutuals when it comes to financial inclusion
It was great to speak at the BSA Annual conference last week, celebrating 250 years of building societies in the UK. The event was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on the sector’s legacy and explore how mutuals can continue to thrive in the future.
One of the highlights was joining a panel discussion on Financial Inclusion. Even more encouraging was the feedback from the room about the importance of financial inclusion as a key contributor to increasing mutuals in the UK.
When polled, the vast majority of attendees agreed that ‘the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy is a significant opportunity to help to double the size of the mutual sector’. This did raise a crucial question – what are the key opportunities on financial inclusion that will work for mutuals? I shared a few observations and challenges.
Mutuals have extraordinarily deep connections to their customers. We’ve seen this firsthand at Fair4All Finance. When we commission research, the engagement levels we get via mutuals is outstanding, so much so that market research agencies are regularly astonished by the response rates, which speaks volumes about the loyalty and connections mutuals foster. This is a great starting point for customer led insight and inclusive design within the mutual sector.
When we look across at credit unions and building societies we can see they already have a strong set of customer offers
- how can mutuals’ deep understanding of customers inform new product development?
- how can we maximise the connections between providers to get a larger share of people’s financial services needs serviced in the mutuals sector?
- and what role can partnerships and shared technology platforms play?
Rounding out the customer offer to ensure people are getting the products and help they need is vital. It’s about making sure people get the right support at the right time. That means:
- Hot transfers not cold referrals to debt advice and gambling help
- Benefits calculators and grants checkers that are ubiquitous across financial services and a core part of the customer experience. They need to be embedded in the customer journey, not hidden in a menu or offered only when someone is in distress
This month the Financial Inclusion Committee is finalising proposals to recommend to government for inclusion in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
We’ve already got great input from credit unions and building societies on how to help deliver financial inclusion and grow the sector with a range of suggested measures, from a Community Reinvestment Act type equivalent and broader credit broking exemptions to enable charities to have the same carve outs currently provided to social landlords, through to shared back office tech arrangements (CUSOs).
The mutual sector has the customer trust, the collaborative spirit, and the innovative drive to make financial inclusion a cornerstone of its growth. But to truly double the size of the mutual sector, we need to ask: What else needs to be true to turn this vision into reality?
