Understanding the role of technology in community finance

In partnership with The Finance Innovation Lab and Innovate Finance we surveyed the community finance sector to understand the role of technology in the industry

The survey highlights the high level of ambition throughout the sector to further develop technology, to help make products and services more accessible and relevant to the consumers of tomorrow. It also identifies challenges with legacy technologies, IT capability and funding.

Headline findings

• 93% of providers expect they’ll need to substantially increase their technology in the next five years – in many cases to survive
• 37% of lenders are undertaking or planning significant technology change, with many looking at replacing their core technology
• Funding is by far the main perceived barrier to the sector optimising its use of technology, with insufficient capability and inappropriate products from suppliers behind in second and third place

We hope this report gives community finance providers an insight into how technology is being used by their peers in the industry. And that it helps to navigate the technologies on the market.

To help the sector optimise their use of technology we used the report and survey results to develop a technology transformation toolkit and webinars, which you can find elsewhere in the Resources section of the site.