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...
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From discrimination and repossession to entrepreneurial inspiration with Jules Hawkins
The Responsible Finance Podcast
This is both an extraordinary and, sadly, an every day tale. All over the UK people with children or caring responsibilities compete for shifts or work patterns which fit around them, face the 'poverty premium' or are locked out from opportunities. "I was dismissed on so many levels," says Jules Hawkins. "I knew I was capable of more and I knew I wanted to be a taxpayer." Jules' "whole world crumbled" when a new owner of a business she'd long worked for refused to allow her to work flexibly around childcare. Everything escalated out of control: she had to move to lower-paid work, lost her...
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Allegro Optical – Growth, Finance, Customer Service and a Masterclass in Business Development
The Responsible Finance Podcast
Stephen Tighe and Sheryl Doe founded Allegro Opticians to address specific issues which the eyesight of musicians and performing artists. The business now has customers from all over the world, has won multiple business awards, has a trusted high street presence with three branches, and has grown from two to more than twenty employees. Stephen describes his career background in the armed forces and financial services, how he and Sheryl met because of their passion for music, the problems which affect musicians' eyesight, building an ethical supply chain, and why they approached Responsible...
info_outlineFaisel Rahman is CEO and founder of Fair Finance, a social enterprise tackling financial exclusion which has built a reputation for entrepreneurial growth, social and commercial rigour.
Faisal talks about how working with Grameen and the World Bank in Bangladesh sowed a seed that led to Fair Finance, and how understanding what makes high cost credit providers successful leads to designing products that people actually want.
Millions of underbanked people are either treated badly by the mainstream or exploited by non-mainstream providers.
Responsible Finance providers and credit unions should aim to put high cost lenders out of business by being a better alternative and ensuring they are customers' first choice.
Data disclosure and transparency features largely in this episode too. And responsible finance providers which can prove their social impact and their commercial viability must increase their ambitions of scale – high cost credit is a multi-million pound industry.