The Financial Inclusion Policy Forum brings together leaders on financial inclusion to ensure collaboration across Government and with the sector. The Forum is co-chaired by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (EST) and the Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion. The Forum’s sixth meeting was held on 23 November 2020 as a video call.
1. Agenda items of the sixth meeting included:
- An update from the EST on Forum membership;
- A presentation of Fair4AllFinance’s (F4AF) latest strategy, led by Richard Collier-Keywood (chair) and guest speaker Sacha Romanovitch (CEO);
- An overview of the FCA review of change and innovation in the unsecured credit market (Woolard Review), led by guest speaker Christopher Woolard;
- A discussion about access to credit for low-income consumers.
2. Key themes of discussion included:
- F4AF presented their strategic priorities, latest work on supporting people in financially vulnerable circumstances and the next steps on their work on credit data sharing.
- Forum members discussed how new information technology – including digital identification and open banking – can be used to improve access to financial products and services.
- The overview of the Woolard Review stimulated a discussion about the drivers of borrowing, and the risks and opportunities associated with unregulated credit products.
- Forum members identified ways of helping low-income consumers to access credit: working with credit unions to support long-term sustainability; improving collaboration and data sharing across the financial services sector; integrating access to credit with financial guidance models.
The next forum meeting is expected to take place in Spring 2021.
Source : From the Web