Financial inclusion consultant.
Financial inclusion is who can reach a financial product, and who can use it. I led the first Financial Inclusion Customer Strategy on the gender pension gap, at Standard Life.
What financial inclusion means in a UK firm
The decision in front of a product lead or a customer lead is concrete. Which customers get through the journey you have built, and which ones stop. The UK government's Financial Inclusion Strategy treats access to banking as the base, and it links that access to digital services. The FCA has said that inclusion and financial capability belong together, and that firms should build support into the product.
I am not a law firm and I am not a compliance monitor. I look at the customer evidence.
What the FCA is asking firms to notice
The FCA's strategy for 2025 to 2030 says it will support the government on financial inclusion, and that low financial capability holds people back from products that could help them manage their money. For a bank, insurer, pension firm or fintech, that lands as a design question. Which journeys assume a confident customer with a working device.
The Consumer Duty still asks you to show outcomes for the customers in the target market, including customers in vulnerable circumstances. Financial inclusion is one place that evidence has to be visible. If you want the vulnerability question on its own, see FCA vulnerable customers.
What I help with
- A customer strategy for inclusion. The kind I led on the gender pension gap, where the work was getting more customers to understand and engage with their pension.
- Journey changes in the places customers struggle, so the product is usable by the people it is for.
- The board line. How this work sits in the Consumer Duty evidence you already owe, including for customers in vulnerable circumstances.
- A bounded first read. The customer experience diagnostic is 2-4 weeks when you want the map before a larger programme.
Why me
I spent seven years at a FTSE 100 insurer across proposition, customer strategy and customer sustainability, so I have been inside the budget conversation as well as the customer one. I know what boards ask, and what is realistic inside a change budget. I have written up how we got the gender pension gap work funded.
Proof
I was previously Head of Customer Sustainability at Standard Life (FTSE 100). The first Financial Inclusion Customer Strategy I led was on the gender pension gap. The figure the team was working with was that women end up with roughly 40% less saved than men by retirement. We got the investment, and we launched webinars to thousands of women on the basics of finance.
For UK pensions providers, I helped design a large quantitative study of vulnerability and customer outcomes in DC accumulation, then wrote provider-facing summaries and helped present the findings. One provider used the findings to shape a pensions tool that helps customers understand future retirement income.
How we can work together
As a consultant on a defined project, as a contractor on day rates, or as an interim if the gap is a person rather than a project. Fully remote on CET hours, on site when it matters, flexible on contracting route, and I'll be straight about rates on the first call.
Related thinking
- Consumer Duty consultant
- Digital inclusion
- The FCA's financial inclusion remit: why the words matter
- Investing should not be a secret
Get in touch
If financial inclusion is on your board pack, or a journey is leaving people out, tell me the product. I will say on the first call if I am the wrong person.
Common questions
What is financial inclusion for a UK financial services firm?
Financial inclusion is who can reach a financial product, and who can use it once they are in. For a bank, insurer, pension firm or fintech, the test is a real journey. Can the customer open the product, and stay with it when their circumstances change. I am not a law firm and I am not a compliance monitor. I look at that journey.
What should a firm do about the FCA's work on financial inclusion?
The FCA's strategy for 2025 to 2030 says it will support the government on financial inclusion, and that low financial capability holds people back from products that could help them. The practical job is to build support into the product. I start with the journeys that assume a confident customer with a working device.
How does financial inclusion connect to the Consumer Duty?
The Consumer Duty asks a firm to show outcomes for the customers in the target market, including customers in vulnerable circumstances. Financial inclusion is one place that evidence has to be visible. If the paperwork is done and the journey still only works for the easiest customer, the outcome is not there yet.