Fair4All Finance CEO, Kate Pender shares her reflections from the Fair4All Finance Conference, and the ‘Delivering Financial Inclusion Together’ panel discussion.

At this pivotal moment in time, we have an enormous opportunity to reshape the financial services system so that it works for everyone, especially the 20 million people in financially vulnerable circumstances.

Delivering this change could even secure £6.4bn of economic growth every year.

Our annual conference earlier this month felt like a genuine turning point. After years of demand for a step change in financial inclusion, the Government published its Financial Inclusion Strategy.

On the eve of the strategy’s launch, Fair4All Finance brought together over 300 leaders, policymakers and community voices at this year’s Financial Inclusion Conference. What struck me throughout the day was the strength of commitment and an overwhelming belief that change is both achievable and essential.

The strategy sets the direction. It recognises that tackling exclusion requires action across the entire financial ecosystem.

At Fair4All Finance we are ready to play our part, for example, working with the FCA, the ABI, insurers, and social housing providers to boost uptake of contents insurance among social renters and to develop protection products that work for those who are excluded.

We’re launching a £30 million Credit Union Transformation Fund to enable strategic mergers, collaboration between local leaders and credit unions and to modernise systems and scale delivery.

We’ll be piloting a small sum personal loans scheme with mainstream lenders, an intervention that could unlock millions in affordable credit.

And we’re committing an initial £15 million to financial capability initiatives to help to integrate capability enhancing support into the system.

But a strategy alone won’t deliver change; it will take the combined skills of the whole industry, government and regulators to boost financial inclusion.

As the strategy rightly notes, civil society organisations are often best placed to reach the people who the system overlooks. This means industry can’t wait for government to act on challenges that we already understand.

We need ambition, urgency and a relentless drive to deliver, now.

Our opening panel set this out perfectly. Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the FCA, spoke about the regulators work on access to cash and buy now pay later, and his desire to see mutuals, and credit unions play a bigger role in inclusion. His reflections on inclusion initiatives in Brazil and India showed what can be achieved when technology is used to enfranchise.

From insurance, Jason Storah of Aviva reflected on the ABI’s work and emphasised the importance of listening to customers when designing solutions. And that tackling premium disparities and improving customer outcomes will require joined up thinking across industries, not isolated quick fixes.

Tom Riley of Nationwide brought a powerful message from the mutual sector about how, when you exist for your members, you can act differently. Nationwide’s commitment to keep branches open until 2028, its partnership with Dementia UK to support customers in vulnerable circumstances, and initiatives with Plain Numbers and Project Nemo are all examples of practical, human centred design. These interventions make the system work better for people living real, complicated lives.

And Martin Coppack reminded us that while technology has advanced rapidly, key barriers remain. AI offers exciting potential to improve comprehension and access, but capability alone won’t solve exclusion. We must widen access, reduce perceived risks, and put the ‘service’ back into financial services.

Throughout the entirety of the conference, I saw firsthand a community united by their shared visions and ambitions for a transformed financial inclusion landscape.

Furthermore, we know the power which fintech and community organisations have to deliver change, and that’s why the strategy highlights what open banking can unlock, and the tremendous growth that Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have achieved with our funding, and contributions from others which we have helped to leverage.

More change is needed here though, and we are committed to working with the CDFI sector to achieve scaled growth, with an awareness of international examples showing the power that mainstream funding for CDFI lending unlocks.

We also know it through the vital work that credit unions across the UK deliver. Julie, a member of Enterprise Credit Union, accessed a small £300 loan which got her into a job by helping with upfront childcare costs. Over the years she went on to build £2,000 in savings, repay £16,000 in loans and achieve a degree. That is what financial services can achieve – enabling people to transact their lives, build resilience and contribute to society, with a timeline which is manageable for them.

Nikhil offered a timely reminder: access to cash was a known problem for years, yet action came slowly and ultimately it took legislation to force change. We can’t afford to repeat that pattern.

The Financial Inclusion Strategy sets out the next steps. Now is the moment for decisive action. To share what works. To innovate where there are still gaps. To listen deeply to communities. And to ensure that finance truly serves everyone.

Let’s deliver it. Together.