Fair4All Finance May activity update

Welcome to the second Fair4All Finance activity update.

Expanding the team  

Two full-time posts are currently open for application at Fair4All Finance. We are looking for both a CEO and a Social Researcher & Advisor.  

• The CEO recruitment is being led by Greenpark and information about the role and person specification are available here.  

• The Social Researcher & Advisor, Financial Inclusion is being advertised on Guardian Jobs and Charity Job and closes on 31st May.

Please do circulate details of these roles with anyone in your networks who you feel could be a good fit. 

Our first focus area: affordable credit  

We have carried out an initial review of what we should focus on against the backdrop of the Big Lottery Understanding the decision making of people who are experiencing financial exclusion report and the priorities that it suggests. This has led us to prioritise improving access to affordable credit as our first focus area.  

We have set out a number of work-streams against this priority and in the last two months have met with several providers in the affordable lending sector to help us form a view of what it would take to help some of the organisations tackling this problem to increase the scale of their activity. 

We expect to begin a detailed pilot with 4 – 6 organisations this summer and are asking that anyone interested in participating in this or, working with us on this, get in touch with our strategy and policy lead, Tom Lake: Tom@Fair4AllFinance.org.uk 

New workstreams 

We have additionally started work-streams in three other important affordable credit areas: 

• Credit Unions – we are assessing the needs of the sector against the goal of increasing the amount of lending they make to vulnerable people. 
• Credit scoring – we are starting our work with both mainstream and alternative credit scorers to develop an understanding of the industry, current assessment standards and the needs of the most vulnerable customers. 
• Employer lending schemes – we recognise that many current payday loans are a part of the High-Cost Credit landscape and working with employers may help to reduce the problems created. We are starting to engage with providers of lending products that are delivered via employers and some employers who are willing to trial some of these new arrangements. 

Theory of Change

We are also working to refine our theory of change. This includes a consideration of the societal costs of high-cost credit, in terms of such matters as mental health, physical health and such costs associated with homelessness for example.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this update. We look forward to being able to update you on our progress in these areas again soon.  

In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch – we want to be as transparent and collaborative as possible.