A big thank you
We’d like to say thanks to everyone from across the financial services sector who helped make our first financial inclusion conference a big success. We know that no one organisation can tackle financial exclusion alone, and we look forward to working with you all to build a fairer financial services sector for everyone.
Our headline speakers
Iona Bain
Iona Bain is one of the country’s leading financial broadcasters, having become BBC Morning Live’s resident financial expert in early 2022. Her role allows her to broadcast live studio items and reports on important financial issues to nearly 1.5m people every week, making Morning Live the UK’s highest rated daytime magazine show. She came to prominence as the founder of Young Money Blog, an award-winning website that put millennial money issues on the map in the UK and saw her become a regular commentator on programmes like BBC Question Time, Newsnight and ITV Tonight.
As well as presenting editions of Moneybox and File on 4 for Radio 4, she has previously been a prolific freelance journalist, writing for publications as varied as the Financial Times, Refinery 29, the Spectator and i newspaper. She has written two books, the latest of which is called Own It!, is an ambassador for National Numeracy and this summer will be awarded the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of her contribution to raising financial literacy and awareness.
Kelly Beaver MBE
Kelly Beaver is Chief Executive of Ipsos in the UK and Ireland, one of the largest and most innovative research organisations in the UK. With over 2,000 specialist research, operational, and advisory employees across 12 offices, Ipsos delivers reliable information and true understanding of Society, Markets and People. Kelly has been with Ipsos for over a decade. Previously, she was Managing Director of Ipsos’s UK Public Affairs division, which supports government clients to monitor and understand public opinion, behaviours and societal trends, design public services and policies, and to determine what works in achieving social and economic policy objectives. In addition to her role at Ipsos, she also holds several honorary positions external to Ipsos in academia and charities.
Kelly is a regular commentator in the national press and broadcast media. She is experienced at presenting to senior audiences on public and business leader opinion, as well as societal and consumer trends across a range of topics including trust, gender equality, employee engagement, leadership, and many others. She was awarded an MBE in June 2022 as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to academia, research and the COVID-19 response, and was named in the Female FTSE Board Report – 100 Women to Watch 2022.
Lord John Bird MBE
John, The Lord Bird MBE was born into poverty and brought up in care. His life journey has included spells as a prisoner, artist and printer. Now an activist, publisher and Crossbench member of the House of Lords, Lord Bird is the driving force behind The Big Issue Group, which includes the world’s most successful street magazine, The Big Issue and its social investment arm, Big Issue Invest. Lord Bird is a business leader with an outstanding record of using enterprise as a force for social change in dismantling the root causes of poverty; and in Parliament, he focuses on poverty and homelessness prevention.
Robin Fieth
Robin is a fellow of the ICAEW, a non-executive director of Co-operatives UK, a member of the General Assembly of the European Association of Co-operative Banks, and of the CBI’s Trade Association Council. He is married with three grown-up children.
Sara Weller CBE
Sara Weller CBE is the Chair of Money and Pensions Service, and Non-executive Director of BT Group plc, and Virgin Money plc. She is a former Non-executive Director of Lloyds Banking Group plc and United Utilities plc. As an executive, Sara was Managing Director of Argos for 7 years, and on the plc Board at J Sainsbury. She has also worked in Whitehall as the Lead Non-Executive on two Government Department Boards, DWP and DCLG (now DLUHC)
We welcomed over 200 leaders from across the financial services sector to experience 1 lived experience panel, 2 keynote speeches, 2 expert panel discussions and 7 tailored breakout sessions.
Our event illustrator was on hand to capture some of the main discussion points of the day. You can scroll through the gallery below.
And you can expand the section below to revisit what was covered.
The day’s agenda
Welcome
Kate Pender
Kate Pender is Deputy Chief Executive at Fair4All Finance. She leads development and delivery of £40m of scaled pilot testing of new propositions to support customers in vulnerable financial circumstances including the No Interest Loan Scheme, Consolidation lending pilots and implementation of benefits calculators and grant checkers in lending journeys, all of which JP Morgan have co-funded.
Since its inception in 2019, Kate has led Fair4All Finances’ work on growing the capability and resilience of community finance lenders including Fair4All Finance’s inaugural £12m investments into not for profit lenders, its technology investment fund, good practice guidance on mergers, diligence, compliant lending and most transformational leadership programme. Utilising the innovation ecosystem to best effect Kate’s team are mentors for the FCA’s technology sprints and the Fair4All Finance pilots are in the FCA’s regulatory sandbox and innovation pathway programmes.
Kate has developed the financial packages including subsidy arrangements and novel bad debt guarantees to enable lenders to trial supporting customers traditionally outside of their risk appetite. Prior to joining Fair4All Finance Kate had twenty years of experience in economic development and on support to accelerate the growth of small businesses.
Looking to the future – the political and social context post election
Kelly Beaver MBE
Kelly Beaver is Chief Executive of Ipsos in the UK and Ireland, one of the largest and most innovative research organisations in the UK. With over 2,000 specialist research, operational, and advisory employees across 12 offices, Ipsos delivers reliable information and true understanding of Society, Markets and People. Kelly has been with Ipsos for over a decade. Previously, she was Managing Director of Ipsos’s UK Public Affairs division, which supports government clients to monitor and understand public opinion, behaviours and societal trends, design public services and policies, and to determine what works in achieving social and economic policy objectives. In addition to her role at Ipsos, she also holds several honorary positions external to Ipsos in academia and charities.
Kelly is a regular commentator in the national press and broadcast media. She is experienced at presenting to senior audiences on public and business leader opinion, as well as societal and consumer trends across a range of topics including trust, gender equality, employee engagement, leadership, and many others. She was awarded an MBE in June 2022 as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to academia, research and the COVID-19 response, and was named in the Female FTSE Board Report – 100 Women to Watch 2022.
Understanding people in financially vulnerable circumstances with the Fair4All Finance segmentation model
Session facilitator: Lauren Peel
Diana Kamil-Salmon
Diana is our Head of Engagement. She’s responsible for leading on our relationships with the financial services and spends her time building partnerships and thinking about how the sector can work together to deliver the most impact. Diana’s work includes partnering with retail banks and commercial banks as well as potential investors and grant funders to attract capital. Diana’s team lead on wider cross-sector engagement including with our third sector charity partners and housing associations. Previously Diana worked at JPMorgan within the Markets business. She is a keen advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion and set up a number of initiatives including a charity partnership at her previous organisation to encourage social mobility and diverse recruitment. Diana is a Trustee for a local charity focused on giving grants to people in financially vulnerable circumstances and volunteers with Translators Without Borders.
Kate Pender
Kate Pender is Deputy Chief Executive at Fair4All Finance. She leads development and delivery of £40m of scaled pilot testing of new propositions to support customers in vulnerable financial circumstances including the No Interest Loan Scheme, Consolidation lending pilots and implementation of benefits calculators and grant checkers in lending journeys, all of which JP Morgan have co-funded.
Since its inception in 2019, Kate has led Fair4All Finances’ work on growing the capability and resilience of community finance lenders including Fair4All Finance’s inaugural £12m investments into not for profit lenders, its technology investment fund, good practice guidance on mergers, diligence, compliant lending and most transformational leadership programme. Utilising the innovation ecosystem to best effect Kate’s team are mentors for the FCA’s technology sprints and the Fair4All Finance pilots are in the FCA’s regulatory sandbox and innovation pathway programmes.
Kate has developed the financial packages including subsidy arrangements and novel bad debt guarantees to enable lenders to trial supporting customers traditionally outside of their risk appetite. Prior to joining Fair4All Finance Kate had twenty years of experience in economic development and on support to accelerate the growth of small businesses.
Laura Crow
Laura is one of our Senior Proposition Managers working to help financial service providers understand our segments and utilise her background in product development to support user-centred design techniques in building products addressing customer needs. She is particularly interested in how alternative data can support product pathways for vulnerable customers. For 15 years Laura worked in financial services in Africa, which ties in with her passion for travel and trying new cuisines.
Lauren Peel
Lauren is Director of Marketing, Consumer Insights and Propositions. She’s responsible for ensuring that our partners, our team and the financial services sector understand the needs of people in financially vulnerable circumstances, and are designing and delivering solutions propositions that work for them. Lauren’s team are responsible for Fair4All Finance’s segmentation model. Lauren is also one of our key spokespeople for consumer activity, raising awareness of providers and propositions that improve financial resilience.
Lauren is a practising coach, a proud Yorkshire lass, and has been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community for the last decade.
Breakout session one
Option A – Funding the change: How do we encourage and enable investment in affordable credit?
Session facilitator: Jamie Broderick
Harry Davies
Harry Davies is a Principal at Ceniarth, where he helps lead on organisation-wide strategy, impact management and pipeline origination. Ceniarth is the impact-first, single-family office of Diane Isenberg and focuses on investments that benefit underserved communities globally.
Together with the Isenberg Family Charitable Foundation, we deploy capital to funds, financial intermediaries, and social enterprises that support marginalized and vulnerable populations. We invest with non-profits, for-profits, and hybrid organizations with an emphasis on sectors such as agriculture, affordable housing, financial inclusion, and climate justice. We prioritize investments that are catalytic in nature and may require flexibility on risk and return parameters.
Prior to joining Ceniarth, Harry worked extensively across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia helping to design and scale inclusive business models that can improve outcomes for low-income groups.
Holly Piper
Holly Piper is our Investment Director. Holly is responsible for funding and investments to expand the provision of affordable credit. This includes £40m+ social investments to scale up social lenders, resilience grants to community finance providers, and working with banks and other funders to increase the available funding. Holly is a non-exec member of the funding committee of City Bridge Foundation, London’s biggest independent charity funder. Previously Holly led social investment fund CAF Venturesome, making hundreds of affordable social investments to a wide range of social organisations. Outside of work, Holly enjoys spending time with her young sons and exuberant dog.
Jamie Broderick
Jamie Broderick is Deputy Chair of the Impact Investing Institute, an independent, non-profit UK organisation that aims to accelerate the growth and improve the effectiveness of the impact investing market. The Institute is supported by the UK’s Government Inclusive Economy Unit, the City of London Corporation, and a number of financial services organisations in the UK.
Jamie was head of UBS Wealth Management in the UK from 2013-2017. Jamie joined UBS after nineteen years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, latterly as Chief Executive of its European business. He joined J.P. Morgan in New York in 1993 and moved to London in 1996. He started his financial services career at Wellington Management Company, an independent asset management partnership in Boston.
Theo Hadjimichael
As Chief Executive of Responsible Finance, Theodora works with her team to increase the provision and awareness of finance from community development finance institutions (CDFIs), so that all businesses, people and communities have access to the finance they need to thrive. Theodora’s previous experience includes working in community finance in the UK and the US. Originally from Greece and having spent many years in the US, she lives in the Cotswolds with her husband and daughter.
Warren Mutch
Warren heads up the Shawbrook Speciality Finance team, which supports c.90 UK based non bank specialist lenders through its Wholesale and Block Discounting products. Warren has had a 15+ year banking career, previously at RBS/NatWest, before joining Shawbrook in 2017. Previous experience include credit risk, portfolio management and origination roles supporting SMEs and large corporates, and now with c.10 years focussed on the specialist lender market.
Option B – Meeting the needs of everyone in a sustainable way, without people paying more for being poor
Session facilitator: Philippa Handyside
James Daley
James Daley has been a consumer campaigner and financial journalist for over 20 years. Before launching Fairer Finance in 2014, he worked for the consumer group, Which?, where he campaigned for a better deal for customers of banks and insurers in the wake of the financial crisis.
James is frequently interviewed on national television and radio, and has regularly appeared on shows such as Watchdog, Rip-off Britain, Dispatches and Moneybox.
Before working at Which?, James spent 10 years as a business and finance newspaper journalist, latterly as the The Independent’s personal finance editor and cycling columnist.
He is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute’s professional standards committee, and a member of the Association of British Insurers’ Consumer Advisory Group.
He lives with his wife and two children in Tooting, where he’s also Chair of Governors at Smallwood Primary School.
Johnny Timpson
A financial access, inclusion, and resilience advocate, Johnny Timpson OBE has extensive insurance and banking sector plus academic, professional, and trade body, senior leadership experience and is the principal of Johnny Timpson Consulting and Non-Executive Chair of both specialist military insurance brokerage Absolute Military, and cross sector vulnerability tech Morgan Ash. A Financial Inclusion Commissioner, he is additionally a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, the BIBA Access To Insurance Committee, the Building Resilient Households Group, Hargreaves Lansdown Savings & Resilience Barometer Sounding Board, and GAIN – the Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity.
A former Cabinet Office and DWP Financial Services sector Ambassador, Johnny currently has ambassador roles with the Surviving Economic Abuse Charity and Age Irrelevance. A Trustee of the Caudwell Children’s Charity, he holds advisory roles with the Vocational Rehabilitation Association UK, the University of Edinburgh Business School Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work Programme, and the Protection Distributors Group.
Peter Glancy
Pete has been with the Lloyds Banking Group for 34 years, where he has held a wide range of positions across multiple disciplines and has been Head of Policy for the last 9 years. Pete is on the Strategy Council at TISA, The DC Committee at the PLSA, the Pensions Panel at the CBI, and various committees at the ABI. Pete is also a non-executive director at fin-tech firm ‘Criterion Tech UK’.
Philippa Handyside
Philippa Handyside is a Director on the ABI’s Executive Team. She became General Counsel at the ABI in 2015, having joined as Head of Legal in 2012.
Philippa’s role encompasses managing the organisational risk of the ABI, including the competition compliance of all ABI activities. She and the ABI Legal Team also provide input into policy, regulatory and member initiatives of the organisation. This has involved the ABI’s participation in a number of judicial reviews and Supreme Court cases.
Philippa’s legal career has centred on insurance. She qualified as a Barrister after studying law at Bristol, converting to become a solicitor and working for many years in Pinsent Masons insurance and financial services group.
What does it mean to be financially excluded? Lived Experience Panel
Facilitator: Michael Hilton
Michael Hilton
Michael is a Director at Three Hands Insight, a mission-driven business which brings the voices of charities and lived experts into businesses to improve life for vulnerable and underserved customers.
He loves hosting discussions amongst people who wouldn’t normally be in a room together and seeing the different energy, ideas and connections that emerge.
He has played a key part in the development of Three Hands’ social insight work since he joined the business in 2018. This has included creating the Lived Experts Research Community which includes over 200 people from all over the UK who are willing to share their experiences of a range of different ‘vulnerable circumstances’.
Before Three Hands, Michael studied History at Cambridge University and worked in the UK Government, including roles in innovation and climate policy. He then spent a year with A Blueprint For Better Business, learning about how having a purpose to serve society can transform a company.
He is kept very busy by his two young boys, Charlie and Flynn, and tries to watch and play as much cricket as possible in any time that remains.
Panel Members
Breakout session two
Option A: Collaboration and Innovation: Boosting best practice and learning from others
Session facilitator: Lis Costa
Caroline Edwards
Caroline is the Sustainable Banking Lead for Financial Wellbeing at NatWest Group
NatWest has a commitment to champion potential, helping people, families and businesses to thrive. Improving the financial wellbeing, resilience and confidence of customers and communities is one way the bank believes it can make a substantial impact in addressing societal challenges. Caroline leads and coordinates the bank’s engagement, policy development and social impact programmes which work to help everyone develop good money practices. She is responsible for integrating financial wellbeing into the bank’s strategy and operations, innovating to drive financial inclusion; and she provides leadership of social programmes designed to empower participants to take control of their money and future.
Caroline is also the Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust for two primary schools in north London.
Jane Rodrick
Jane is a vulnerability expert, with nine years experience leading Lloyds Banking Group and the sector to drive inclusive outcomes for customers.
Jane leads the UK Finance DAFA working group, sits on the MaPS Welsh Board and X (anything else?).
Jane has 35 years experience in financial services, spanning customer facing roles, supplier management and risk, Jane brings the breadth of her knowledge into her current role as Head of Customer Inclusion. Jane is responsible for raising awareness and advocacy both internally and externally, working with industry bodies, consumer groups, charities and social organisations to understand emerging themes to enhance the support Lloyds Banking Group is able to provide to customers and communities across the UK.
Jonathan Turner
Jonathan joined Fair4All Finance in 2019, bringing with him 25 years of experience from his career in Financial Services Technology Consulting, where he most recently served as a partner at PwC.
Over the past five years, he has been applying his experience from projects with mainstream financial services clients to the community finance sector, working with both lenders and technology solution providers.
He started his career as a developer and designer within large scale transformations for mainstream finance clients at Accenture, moving into developing digital strategies and enterprise architectures. He founded a digital start-up in 2000, which is still operational, and spent four years working at Visa Europe within their programme to carve out the European operations.
At PwC he helped banks and finance providers to navigate complex transformations and crises, including acting as technology lead and then COO of the Lehman Brothers administration for five years.
Jonathan is a keen sailor but is regularly beaten by his three daughters in competitive races! He volunteers with the RNLI as technology advisor.
Karen Bennett CBE
Karen Bennett has dedicated over 30 years to the credit union sector and currently serves as CEO of Enterprise Credit Union in Merseyside, overseeing a membership of over 23,000. Under her leadership, ECU’s assets have grown to over £40 million, supporting annual loans exceeding £25 million.
Lis Costa
Lis Costa is the Managing Director of the Behavioural Insights Team in the UK. Elisabeth leads BIT’s work in the United Kingdom. With particular expertise in economic policy and digital markets, Elisabeth has developed and led BIT’s flagship programmes on the intersection of behavioural
science and economic policy. Elisabeth is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science
Option B – Helping people build short and long term resilience
Session Facilitator: Sara Weller CBE
Chris Irwin
Chris has worked in financial services for over 18 years. Joining Yorkshire Building Society in 2012 undertaking various roles including Director of Mortgages before being appointed Director of Savings in January 2022. He is an expert in his field, passionate about making things easy and simple for our customers as well as delivering long term value.
Jo Phillips
Jo leads Nest Insight’s public-benefit research and innovation programme, with a focus on finding better ways to support low- and moderate-income households to be financially secure, both today and into retirement. Working collaboratively with industry and academic partners, Nest Insight conducts research to better understand the challenges people face, and develops and pilots practical real-world solutions to those challenges. Jo has over 15 years’ experience in social and commercial research across the public, private and third sectors and has led innovation work addressing a range of future opportunities in personal finance and pensions.
Marlene Shiels OBE
Marlene Shiels, Chief Executive, is one of the founder members of her credit union, which was established in 1989.
CCU over 30,000 members; it is managing £45m of savings on behalf of its members. Capital serves people from all walks of life across the East Coast of Scotland.
Marlene’s professional goal is to ensure a fair financial system, especially for those with fewer financial choices. She is passionate about ensuring that everyone who needs a helping hand to improve their financial resilience and wellbeing has the opportunity to do so.
CCU is one of the most innovative Credit Unions in the United Kingdom, particularly for those with fewer financial choices. This resulted in Marlene receiving an OBE from the late Queen Elizabeth for services to financial inclusion.
Marlene has served on numerous Boards and Foundations, most recently she was Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority Smaller Business Panel, and Chair of the Money and Pensions Service Nation of Savers Challenge Group. She is an advisor on financial inclusion to her Her Royal Highness Queen Camilla. She is currently on the Board of the Money and Pensions Service and also serves on the Board of the African Co-operative Development Foundation.
Marlene has represented Great Britain on the Board of the World Council of Credit Unions and the Board of the Chartered Banker Institute. She is a co-facilitator, with Lois Kitsch, on the European Development Education Programme.
Robin Fieth
Robin is a fellow of the ICAEW, a non-executive director of Co-operatives UK, a member of the General Assembly of the European Association of Co-operative Banks, and of the CBI’s Trade Association Council. He is married with three grown-up children.
Sara Weller CBE
Sara Weller CBE is the Chair of Money and Pensions Service, and Non-executive Director of BT Group plc, and Virgin Money plc. She is a former Non-executive Director of Lloyds Banking Group plc and United Utilities plc. As an executive, Sara was Managing Director of Argos for 7 years, and on the plc Board at J Sainsbury. She has also worked in Whitehall as the Lead Non-Executive on two Government Department Boards, DWP and DCLG (now DLUHC)
Breakout session three
Option A – How can inclusive and accessible design practices improve outcomes for everyone?
Session facilitator: Sian Williams
Ayesha Begum
Ayesha is our Senior Manager, Strategy and Impact. She spends her time across several research projects to better inform propositions/product development and drive improvements with stakeholder groups. She also works with income maximisation tool suppliers and lenders to help people boost their income, and works to develop and track our impact measurement framework. Outside of work, Ayesha is co-chair of trustees at Invisible Palace and Global Development Manager at Robogals.
Dr. Ramya Sheni
Dr. Ramya Sheni (PhD) is an analytical problem-solver and collaborative researcher with expertise in both traditional and modern research methodologies. With seven years of research experience, Ramya possesses in-depth knowledge and skills in qualitative and quantitative social research. She has worked across various fields, including higher education, public health, brand identity, and audience insights.
Adept at managing diverse research projects, Ramya excels in establishing project frameworks and guiding projects from planning and design to disseminating findings. As a skilled facilitator, she has meaningfully led or supported impactful research and provided strategic solutions to clients. Her extensive experience in co-production and co-creation is a foundational principle for her research projects. Additionally, she has delivered training on peer-to-peer research.
Ramya has conducted ethnographic studies involving minority communities and has substantial experience developing and implementing engagement strategies for working with these communities. Her project management skills encompass task management, budget control, and client communication, ensuring efficient and effective project execution. Ramya’s dedication to her work and ability to provide relevant insights make her an invaluable asset in any research endeavour.
Helen Undy
Helen was a core part of the founding team at Money and Mental Health, running the organisation’s communications and influencing work before becoming CEO in 2018. Since then the charity has doubled in size, and achieved lasting impact across government policy, regulation and beyond as well as becoming the ‘go to’ organisation for understanding the toxic link between money and mental health problems. A passionate campaigner, her proudest moment so far was the team winning the ‘Recovery Space’ campaign, securing vital debt respite for everyone using NHS mental health crisis services.
Helen has significant experience working across the third sector and in policy and politics, including working in Parliament. Helen is committed to campaigning alongside those with lived experience. She previously led Mind’s policy and campaigns work on public mental health and social care, securing key changes to the Care Act, successfully campaigned with young care leavers for better financial security and with people who are homeless for a stronger commitment to tackle rough sleeping in London.
Helen is an independent advisor to the UK Regulator’s Network, sits on the advisory group to the board of the Money and Pensions Service, the UK Finance Consumer Advisory Group, the Government’s Financial Inclusion Policy Forum and the advisory board for suicide prevention charity Jonathan’s Voice.
Outside of work Helen has two small children. Which means her main hobby is laundry.
Kathryn Townsend
Kathryn has been leading the advancement of accessibility in business for more than a decade. In addition to her day job, Kathryn is the Government’s Disability & Access Ambassador for the banking sector. This is a voluntary role, tasked with driving the advancement of accessibility across the banking industry. One of Kathryn’s key priorities as Ambassador has been to help tackle barriers faced by deaf and hard of hearing people, in accessing and understanding financial services.
Prior to joining Nationwide, Kathryn led the disability and vulnerability programme at Barclays, she championed a number of initiatives to support deaf customers including the launch of instant video relay services into telephony and in-branch and a lip speaker service. Kathryn has spoken to global audiences as an ambassador for financial inclusion and accessibility, including at the UN in Vienna. Kathryn is a trustee of Euan’s Guide; the disabled access charity.
Sian Williams
Sian Williams is CEO of Switchback, an award-winning London-based charity supporting young men leaving prison build sustainable lives they can be proud of.
Sian aims to deepen policy-makers’ understanding of systemic causes of exclusion and inequality and demonstrate how co-designing solutions with those people directly affected leads to more effective, efficient and sustainable solutions. Sian has been a champion for lived experience-led systemic approaches to financial inclusion since 2009, both in her previous work leading Toynbee Hall’s research, policy and innovation programmes in London’s East End and through representative roles on the Payments Strategy Forum, the PSR Panel, the Link Consumer Advisory Council, the APP Scams Steering Group, the NILS Advisory Group, the Pay.UK End User Council and the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum.
Successes include securing the fee-free Basic Bank Account entitlement for people denied access to a mainstream current account and initiating the HMT-funded No Interest Loan Scheme pilot. Key interests are access to fee-free banking, payments innovations which meet the needs of people on precarious incomes (e.g. Request to Pay) and increasing access to affordable credit.
Sian is also Chair of Positive Money, a new economy think tank, and Vice Chair of the Financial Inclusion Commission.
Option B – How do we ensure access for all in the shift to digital?
Session facilitator: Natalie Ceeney CBE
Faith Reynolds
Faith is a consumer finance expert and employed as Consumer Lead at Amplified Global. She is a non-executive director at the Payment Systems Regulator and until recently was the Independent Consumer Representative on the Open Banking Implementation Entity Steering Group. She is also a non-executive director for the Current Account Switch Service and was previously a member of the FCA’s Financial Services Consumer Panel, as the lead for technology and innovation.
Helen Milner OBE
Helen has over 30 years’ experience of working in and leading organisations creating and delivering education over and about the internet. She is the Group Chief Executive for Good Things Foundation, the digital inclusion charity working in the UK and Australia, and in with thousands of hyperlocal community partners. Helen was awarded an OBE for services to digital inclusion in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In 2017 she won the title of Digital Leader of the Year (UK) and was named by Computer Weekly as the 14th most influential person in UK IT in 2020. She is the Chair of environmental charity Subak, and on the Money and Pension Services’ Board Advisory Group.
Jemma Waters
Jemma is passionate about using data for good and developing impactful partnerships; all with people and purpose in mind. She is a FutureDotNow Trustee and #WATC top100 Rising Star 2019.
Jemma leads the team responsible for growing financial resilience and digital inclusion at Lloyds Banking Group. With 8 years collaborating with government, industry and charities to build the UKs financial and digital confidence, the team are driven by data and action. The team are responsible for shaping a more digitally and financially inclusive UK, ensuring customers, communities and colleagues have the capability and resilience needed to engage with financial services and beyond.
Jemma’s team shape the UK’s largest benchmark of individuals, charities and businesses’ digital skills; the Digital Index reports; drive UK tech adoption for individuals and business, connected communities, financial education and external partnerships, whilst working across the business in LBG to support customers financial resilience.
Previously, Jemma worked at Accenture Interactive and dunnhumby, using data with human-centred design thinking to support clients including Sky, Tesco and Channel 4.
Matt Adam
Impact Founder of the Year (2024), Matt is the Founder of We Are Group, a community services provider that runs digital and financial inclusion programmes all across the UK for housing associations, local authorities, central government and corporates, through a network of hyper-local third sector organisations and underpinned by a unique new welfare-tech platform.
Founded in 2012, We Are Group has grown to 100 staff and has helped over 100,000 people get online, manage their money, receive debt advice, find work and more. Headquartered in the West Midlands and backed by leading impact investors, as a passionate social enterprise, 100% of their revenue must help people in need or who are excluded.
Natalie Ceeney CBE
Natalie is the author of the Access to Cash Review, and Chair of Cash Access UK, which is rolling out Banking Hubs to communities across the UK which would otherwise be left without the services they need. Natalie is a Chair and non executive Director in a range of sectors, with an executive career consisting of three CEO roles, including the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Option C – Working together to understand the issues and increase access to affordable credit
Session facilitator: Kate Pender
James Berry
James Berry is CEO of Great Western Credit Union and has led the organisation since 2007, as well as having played a number of roles within the sector at a national level.
Great Western Credit Union (GWCU), formerly Bristol Credit Union, extended its membership area from the former Avon county into Gloucestershire, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire in 2021 to build on its digital transformation which was initiated in late 2019 just before the Covid pandemic struck.
GWCU now has a modern IT ecosystem which delivers tangible member benefit and enables service 24/7 across the now very broad geography. GWCU has also been through a considerable cultural and operational shift, moving toward an empowered team working with a continuous improvement approach.
One of the first credit unions to secure significant external investment, GWCU is delivering high levels of growth in membership and social impact, with an ambitious plan to scale up significantly over the next 5 years.
Kate Pender
Kate Pender is Deputy Chief Executive at Fair4All Finance. She leads development and delivery of £40m of scaled pilot testing of new propositions to support customers in vulnerable financial circumstances including the No Interest Loan Scheme, Consolidation lending pilots and implementation of benefits calculators and grant checkers in lending journeys, all of which JP Morgan have co-funded.
Since its inception in 2019, Kate has led Fair4All Finances’ work on growing the capability and resilience of community finance lenders including Fair4All Finance’s inaugural £12m investments into not for profit lenders, its technology investment fund, good practice guidance on mergers, diligence, compliant lending and most transformational leadership programme. Utilising the innovation ecosystem to best effect Kate’s team are mentors for the FCA’s technology sprints and the Fair4All Finance pilots are in the FCA’s regulatory sandbox and innovation pathway programmes.
Kate has developed the financial packages including subsidy arrangements and novel bad debt guarantees to enable lenders to trial supporting customers traditionally outside of their risk appetite. Prior to joining Fair4All Finance Kate had twenty years of experience in economic development and on support to accelerate the growth of small businesses.
Niall Alexander
Niall has worked on the impact of a lack of access to financial products and services for lower income households for over 30 years. In the 1990s working as a community worker with activists in Craigmillar and Wester Hailes in Edinburgh, on a range of campaigns that began around housing, health and welfare and increasingly focussed on credit and debt. Niall then worked at Bank of Scotland, before establishing his own consultancy specialising in credit and inclusion. In the past decade Niall worked for Moneyline and then anchored the access to credit work for Carnegie (2016-21) before joining Fair4All Finance.
Rachelle Earwaker
Rachelle leads on JRF’s cost of living research, focusing on the impact the crisis is having on the finances of low-income households, as well as on debt and affordable credit. She also works on our housing programme, which is focussed on both improving the affordability and quality of the UK’s housing stock, as well as the distribution of ownership, and the tenure balance in the UK.
Rachelle previously worked as an analyst at the New Zealand Treasury, where she coordinated the Budgets, including implementing the first Wellbeing Budget in 2019. She also worked on housing policy, focusing on social and emergency housing in New Zealand.
Richard King
Richard King is a trusted adviser and spokesperson for Boards and Executive Committees, who capitalises on how business, government, media and the market connect in a digital world. An expert on government and Whitehall, who understands how ministers, officials and regulators operate and their outlook. He is an expert on sustainability and corporate responsibility/ESG, and has International, EMEA and UK communications expertise for regulated companies, including insurance, fund management, retail banking, private banking, and investment platforms. Government communications and public affairs expertise gained at HM Treasury, Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and Department of Work & Pensions.
New Parliament. New opportunity. Renewed focus on financial inclusion
Session facilitator: Sarah Porretta
Greg Sachrajda
Greg is currently Interim Director of Cross-Cutting Policy and Strategy in the Financial Conduct Authority’s Supervision, Policy and Competition Division.
Greg has previously held a number of roles at the Financial Conduct Authority, and its predecessor the Financial Services Authority. This includes Head of Department for International Delivery, leading on the delivery of the FCA’s EU withdrawal and wider international work, ensuring the FCA and all sectors of the financial services industry were ready for key Brexit milestones.
Greg has also led key projects in the FCA’s Transformation directorate to make the FCA the regulator it needs to be to meet today’s challenges and those of the future, and has led multiple Enforcement teams. This includes heading up the Law, Policy and International department, and Enforcement’s Relationship Management and Strategy Team. Greg has led numerous Enforcement investigations into suspected financial services misconduct, with experience of Tribunal proceedings and large-scale customer compensation programmes.
Before joining the FCA/FSA, Greg was a commercial litigation lawyer in London specialising in financial services litigation, representing subjects of regulatory investigations, advising clients on regulatory matters, and conducting internal investigations.
Iona Bain
Iona Bain is one of the country’s leading financial broadcasters, having become BBC Morning Live’s resident financial expert in early 2022. Her role allows her to broadcast live studio items and reports on important financial issues to nearly 1.5m people every week, making Morning Live the UK’s highest rated daytime magazine show. She came to prominence as the founder of Young Money Blog, an award-winning website that put millennial money issues on the map in the UK and saw her become a regular commentator on programmes like BBC Question Time, Newsnight and ITV Tonight.
As well as presenting editions of Moneybox and File on 4 for Radio 4, she has previously been a prolific freelance journalist, writing for publications as varied as the Financial Times, Refinery 29, the Spectator and i newspaper. She has written two books, the latest of which is called Own It!, is an ambassador for National Numeracy and this summer will be awarded the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of her contribution to raising financial literacy and awareness.
Martin Coppack
Martin is the Director of Fair by Design which exists to end the poverty premium – the extra costs poorer people pay for essential services like energy, credit, payments and insurance. With a background in consumer advocacy, grant-making and regulation, he has held a range of positions, all with the common objective of placing low income and vulnerable people at the heart of policy-making.
Whilst at the Financial Conduct Authority, he created its model for engaging with consumer groups as well as its consumer vulnerability programme, leading to nationwide changes for consumers. At the Big Lottery Fund he led the creation of its £31.7 million financial capability and inclusion programme.
Martin is trustee of Young Scot and an adviser to the University of Birmingham’s Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management, as well as an adviser to the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. He has been a Financial Inclusion Commissioner, a member of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, a board member of the Association of Charitable Foundations, the Nationwide Foundation, the Institute of Consumer Affairs, as well as a Commissioner for Scope’s Commission on Extra Costs for Disabled People.
Sarah Porretta
Sarah is currently Deputy CEO at Fair4All Finance, having recently stepped up from her role as Executive Director of Policy and Strategy. Prior to this, she was Executive Director for Strategy, Propositions and Insights at the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) since its inception in 2019, and before that she was Financial Capability Director for one of its predecessor organisations, the Money Advice Service. She has private and public sector experience across various sectors, most recently financial services. She specialises in strategy, stakeholder engagement, and innovation. She has also worked as a consultant part time in recent years, supporting Boards with developing new strategies.
Surina Somal
Surina Somal is the Director of Group Customer Inclusion & Customer Specialist Support (CSS) at Lloyds Banking Group, with over two decades experience within Financial Services, spanning private equity, corporate and consumer Banking. She is passionate about people first leadership, inclusion and driving positive change both internally at Lloyds, and at an industry level.
Surina’s breadth of career, provides her a rounded view and understanding of how to both shape positive outcomes and drive through efficient and affective delivery. Surina is passionate about customers and rethinking how we serve customers, putting their needs, at the heart of how we operate and in particular in moments that matter most to them. Some examples of how Surina is looking at this is through, development and delivery of customer-centric solutions including the improved use of self-service, automation, and AI, all while working to develop inclusive services, building internal and external capability to help increase customer inclusion and societal connections.
Social change and why it’s a powerful force for good
Lord John Bird MBE
John, The Lord Bird MBE was born into poverty and brought up in care. His life journey has included spells as a prisoner, artist and printer. Now an activist, publisher and Crossbench member of the House of Lords, Lord Bird is the driving force behind The Big Issue Group, which includes the world’s most successful street magazine, The Big Issue and its social investment arm, Big Issue Invest. Lord Bird is a business leader with an outstanding record of using enterprise as a force for social change in dismantling the root causes of poverty; and in Parliament, he focuses on poverty and homelessness prevention.
Closing remarks
Kate Pender
Kate Pender is Deputy Chief Executive at Fair4All Finance. She leads development and delivery of £40m of scaled pilot testing of new propositions to support customers in vulnerable financial circumstances including the No Interest Loan Scheme, Consolidation lending pilots and implementation of benefits calculators and grant checkers in lending journeys, all of which JP Morgan have co-funded.
Since its inception in 2019, Kate has led Fair4All Finances’ work on growing the capability and resilience of community finance lenders including Fair4All Finance’s inaugural £12m investments into not for profit lenders, its technology investment fund, good practice guidance on mergers, diligence, compliant lending and most transformational leadership programme. Utilising the innovation ecosystem to best effect Kate’s team are mentors for the FCA’s technology sprints and the Fair4All Finance pilots are in the FCA’s regulatory sandbox and innovation pathway programmes.
Kate has developed the financial packages including subsidy arrangements and novel bad debt guarantees to enable lenders to trial supporting customers traditionally outside of their risk appetite. Prior to joining Fair4All Finance Kate had twenty years of experience in economic development and on support to accelerate the growth of small businesses.
Networking reception
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Latest content from our conference
Representation
We have been intentional in inviting a diverse range of delegates and speakers to participate in our conference. Our intent was to create a diverse and inclusive conference and to provide an open and collaborative platform for a discussion on financial inclusion and the actions that need to be taken to address financial exclusion and improve outcomes for people in financially vulnerable circumstances. We believe we achieved a positive gender balance across all contributors however some ethnic groups are less well-represented and we wanted to acknowledge this.
Fair4All Finance are committed to giving a voice to people that represent our society and to continuing to ensure that diversity and inclusion are key design features of our future events. We know that this is not an issue faced in isolation by Fair4All Finance and may also be reflective of wider challenges within the financial services industry as highlighted in our Levelling the Playing Field research. We hope to work together with wider industry to ensure fair representation of voice and availability of products and services in financial services.
We welcome feedback from delegates on the conference after the event and we’re always happy to hear from people at hello@fair4allfinance.org.uk.
A bit more about our work
Fair4All Finance is here to help transform the system, so that everyone has access to the right financial products and services whenever they need them.
Here are some materials which compliment the event:
This shared plan outlines activities to address the underlying issues of financial exclusion, who needs to lead on them and how coordinated action is key to success. It’s very much a plan for the sector, owned by the sector, along with anyone with an interest or influence in creating a fairer financial services system.
Our first impact report shows how together we’re transforming the lives of people in financially vulnerable circumstances.
We’ve conducted research to better understand how people from minority ethnic groups experience, engage and view financial services providers – and how providers can best meet their needs now and in the future.
Written in partnership with specialist researchers We Fight Fraud, this report presents a candid new insight into the nature of this symptom of financial exclusion based on rare access to both illegal lenders and nearly 300 people using them in Port Talbot, Preston, Glasgow and South London.
The shape and size of the credit market is as important as the size. This report looks in detail at the changing shape of the credit market, and how with shrinking provision, demand is often being met by unregulated loans from friends and family and sometimes illegal lenders.
Our research found the unprecedented support from banks and the regulator significantly helped customers during Covid-19, with no detrimental impact on bottom lines. Many of the lessons learned can support financial institutions in the way they treat their customers and help people in vulnerable circumstances weather current and future financial storms.
We wanted to find out how well deduction lending works for borrowers on low incomes, lenders and employers; where there might be opportunities to improve and grow the offer; and how the model can impact savings behaviour. What we found was overwhelmingly positive.
Showcasing the difference a group of credit unions make to the people they serve across Merseyside, particularly those in financially vulnerable circumstances.
