Sian Williams

CEO, Switchback

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.