Fair By Design is delighted to be on the advisory committee of a new research project looking into how ethnicity influences access to financial products and services in the UK.
The research is a partnership between Fair4All Finance, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, NatWest Group and StepChange.
The aim is to fill current gaps in understanding. It will explore practical short, medium and long term solutions to current inequalities, such as:
- 60% of Asian and 63% of Black households have no savings, compared to 33% of White households
- Black African, Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi groups are 4x, 3.5x and 2.5x more likely to be denied a loan respectively compared to White groups
- Fraud victims from racially minoritised communities are more than twice as likely not to get their money returned compared to White fraud victims.
The goal is to show how financial services providers can be more inclusive of people from racially minoritised communities.
Regulators, policymakers and people working in financial services will also be able to use the findings to inform their decisions on how to improve outcomes for these communities.
The advisory committee will support on the development of the research and share data led insights with the researchers. The committee is made up of practitioners across the financial services sector including:
- Carl Packman, Head of Corporate Engagement, Fair By Design
- Fozia Irfan OBE, Non-Executive Director, Fair4All Finance
- Jerry During, CEO & Co-Founder, Money A+E
- Muna Yassin, Managing Director, Fair Money Advice
- Peter Tutton, Head of Policy, StepChange
- Sacha Romanovitch OBE, CEO, Fair4All Finance
- Shamraz Begum, Co-Lead of the Racial Equality Taskforce, NatWest Group
