Category Archives: Uncategorized

Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs – now also known as Responsible Finance Providers)  have a proud legacy and have made a useful contribution to promoting financial and social inclusion in the UK. But, it has to be said that, up more »

There has been much hype recently about the potential for fintech[1] to transform financial services, and improve consumer welfare. But, there have been few objective assessments of the potential impact. Therefore, today we are publishing a discussion paper to generate more »

The Centre has submitted written evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee Inquiry into the Pensions Freedom and Choice reforms. We are concerned that the risks associated with freedom and choice have not been fully appreciated. At the time of more »

Last week, Provident Financial, the subprime lender which sells expensive credit to higher risk borrowers was dumped from the FTSE100[1]. The previous week its share price fell by 65% after it issued a second profit warning in three months and more »

As its many champions constantly tell us, the City provides huge benefits to our economy in the form of contribution to GDP, tax take, balance of payments, employment and usage of financial services by UK households. This is undoubtedly true. more »

The Centre responded to the FCA’s consultation on proposals for dealing with persistent debt in the credit card market. We argued that the nature of the problems identified by the FCA’s comprehensive analysis of the credit card market means that more »

The FCA’s asset management market study is one of the regulator’s most important current initiatives. The asset management industry is critically important to millions of UK households who are saving for the future or for retirement. Asset management is also more »

Despite years of regulatory reform, there is a long way to go before we can say UK financial markets work well enough to meet the needs of UK households, the real economy and wider society. The scale of the task more »

Just in time for Christmas, last week saw the launch of the Wee Glasgow Loan (www.weeglasgowloan.scot), a new short-term loan product offered by Pollok Credit Union that looks to provide a fair and more affordable alternative for the 100,000 Glaswegians more »

NEST – Evolving for the future The Financial Inclusion Centre has responded to the DWP’s call for evidence on the evolution of NEST. We are big supporters of NEST as a good example of how collective provision can introduce real value more »