Powering-up small businesses to unleash economic growth with JPMorganChase and First Enterprise
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Release Date: 11/17/2025
Powering-up small businesses to unleash economic growth with JPMorganChase and First Enterprise
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Colleen Ebbitt from JPMorganChase and Danielle Davis from First Enterprise join us today for a fascinating chat about listening to and supporting under-served businesses so they can thrive. How? Well, Colleen covers JPMorganChase's small business philanthropy, which supports small business owners on their journeys to growth. A £4m initiative, supported by JPMorganChase, is strengthening community development finance institutions' operations and helping CDFIs to deploy small business loans to great businesses which can't get the finance they need elsewhere. "The problems that we're trying...
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The High Cost Loan Scandal No One is Talking About
The Responsible Finance Podcast
“The only gig in town came with 60% interest, because we were considered subprime lending. It meant that every payment of £15,000 included £9,000 interest.” Business owner David, who subsequently saved more than £80,000 in interest a year by refinancing with a CDFI. When it comes to high-cost credit, most of us think of personal borrowing and payday loans. But the quote above comes from a business owner. More than a decade after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took over regulating consumer lending and introduced the cap on payday loans, there’s a new high-cost loan story...
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Kate Pender, Fair4All Finance: financial inclusion, innovation and big solutions to big challenges
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Kate Pender is CEO of Fair4All Finance, an organisation launched to improve the financial services sector so it better serves people who are underserved and excluded. She was appointed chief executive in 2024 having worked with Fair4All since its inception in 2019: "I drank the Kool-Aid and got hooked on the work." Kate is also a member of the Government's financial inclusion committee. She describes Fair4All's evolving work and covers: • three highlights of its research in 2024 with fascinating implications about the potential to support social purpose lenders via sustained subsidy and...
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Stuart Foster and Brian Holland, NatWest Group
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Why did NatWest Group choose to work with community development finance institutions (CDFIs) as part of its cost-of-living support package? What can be done to signpost CDFIs to bank customers who are financially vulnerable? How do bank to CDFI referral processes work for businesses and social enterprises? And why are CDFIs such a "terrific part of the overall ecosystem of financial services" whose ability is both celebrated and championed by NatWest Group? Brian Holland heads up NatWest Group's approach to vulnerable customers and leads on consumer duty and remediation. He is joined by Stuart...
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Financing social enterprises and the local multiplier effect with Resonance and Raised In
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Katalin Juhasz and Ollie Pollard join us today to show how impact alignment between investors and social enterprises makes a difference to communities and businesses – plus what traditional city institutions can learn from social investors. Ollie is Head of Enterprise Growth Funds at Resonance, founded in 2002 with the mission to connect capital to social enterprise. It had around £350m under management (and a team of 60) when we recorded this podcast. Katalin is Head of Future Business and Impact at Raised In, a social enterprise nursery based in Bristol. I noticed that before joining...
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Proving the impact of air quality interventions and low emission zones with data detective Kate Barnard
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Low emissions zones became a political battleground just after recording this interview with Kate Barnard, founder and CEO of Enjoy The Air. But what does the public think? Can we prove the impact of "hard or soft" interventions on air quality? And just how far are people prepared to go when it comes to action in response to poor air quality? "I was astounded" says Kate as she reveals the results of research showing just how many people will – if they have the means to – vote with their feet and move out of places with poor air. Which cities are most at risk? Kate explains. Despite a legal...
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Fair banking, good credit and collaboration: Niall Alexander, Fair4All Finance
The Responsible Finance Podcast
A community banking agreement brokered by a disadvantaged community with a mainstream bank two decades ago offers valuable insights to address financial exclusion today. Niall Alexander, a "community worker by trade" says the "groundswell" in addressing unfairness and financial exclusion is now reaching a peak. People "aren't asking for gold plated taps" – they need very small sums of money, but could turn to illegal lenders if fair and affordable credit isn't available legally. Niall, now Markets and Consumer Insights Manager with Fair4All Finance, covers a lot of ground in this episode and...
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Doggie dream come true is business success story for Caz Burness
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Caz and Darron Burness already had a thriving business – doggy day care, pet-sitting, home boarding and other services – when they spotted an opportunity to purchase a kennels premises. It was the perfect fit. But how to finance the acquisition? A £100,000 loan from BCRS Business Loans unlocked their ambition and growth plans, safeguarded several jobs and has enabled them to create new jobs too. Beacon Barkers is a licensed kennels with onsite groomers and shop. Caz and Darron also offer dogwalking and pet transport and have embarked on an exciting programme to develop the kennels, launch...
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How to accelerate impact investing with Sarah Gordon
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Impact investing has moved into the mainstream. Many asset owners and managers are trying to deliver more positive social and environmental impact as well as a financial return. Yet just a few years ago many institutions were dismissive or sceptical. How did this change? "It's not about telling people what they should do, it's demonstrating what can be done and the power of the possible," says Sarah Gordon, the founding chief executive of the Impact Investing Institute which she ran from 2019 until recently. The Institute has found personal engagement alongside practical tools and...
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Massive Social Impact, Open Banking and Machine Learning with Tim Rooney, Salad Money
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Ready for some big numbers? How about £165 million? Just one of the staggering figures revealed in Salad Money's first ever impact report. Salad CEO Tim Rooney tells us how the social enterprise, which lends to NHS and Public Sector workers, has helped applicants identify £165m in benefits they could apply for but were not claiming. Its customers "spend to and not beyond their means," he says, "but when they are faced with a financial hurdle, they typically will turn to credit and that's when we are there." It has saved them at least £5.2m in interest, according to its new report. He covers...
info_outlineColleen Ebbitt from JPMorganChase and Danielle Davis from First Enterprise join us today for a fascinating chat about listening to and supporting under-served businesses so they can thrive. How?
Well, Colleen covers JPMorganChase's small business philanthropy, which supports small business owners on their journeys to growth.
A £4m initiative, supported by JPMorganChase, is strengthening community development finance institutions' operations and helping CDFIs to deploy small business loans to great businesses which can't get the finance they need elsewhere.
"The problems that we're trying to solve are complex, multifaceted. They cannot be solved by private sector alone, public sector alone, social sector alone. So the work we do should focus on solving problems and creating value," says Colleen, explaning JPMorganChase's philosophy on the value of partnerships and creating community impact. She also talks about:
• the unique value of CDFIs as experts in supporting underserved businessses and under-invested regions
• how CDFIs take a relationship-based approach: "very different than other parts of the access to finance ecosystem that have become much more automated and quite frankly can make it even more difficult or create additional barriers for accessing finance"
• complementarity with the British Business Bank's groundbreaking Community ENABLE Funding (CEF) Programme
• the mid- and long-term potential outlook and impact
• being part of a "sea-change" by wortking with Responsible Finance, the BBB and CDFIs
First Enterprise is a CDFI which has been around since 1989. Danielle Davis covers how it has always had a strong focus on supporting underserved businesses, including those led by female and ethnic minority founders.
She describes how the JPMorganChase-supported capacity-building programme is giving First Enterprise new "oomph". It's a potent combination, "capital plus capacity" – First Enterprise is an accredited lender through the BBB's CEF programme, and Danielle explains how this means First Enterprise can support many more businesses. Also in Danielle's segment:
• how First is developing while maintaining everything its customers value such as non-financial business support
• what AI can enable
• refinancing short-term high-interest debt, with examples of a business which First Enterprise were able to save more than £30,000 pounds a month by refinancing stacked deals
What next?
• More about Responsible Finance and our member CDFIs: https://responsiblefinance.org.uk