Financial Inclusion
Financial inclusion means that everyone in society is able to access and use a range of important financial goods and services - bank accounts, loans and advice, to name a couple. Many people in the UK, including many black and minority ethnic people, are excluded from these services, unable to open a bank account, obtain affordable loans or receive money advice. This makes life very difficult for people, especially those who are poor and disadvantaged.
Financial Inclusion is a relatively new policy area, with the past few years seeing the government introducing a range of new initiatives. The biggest of these has been the introduction of Basic Bank Accounts, which are easier for people to open and give them the advantages of having a bank account, such as being able to accept a job and save money by paying bills through direct debit. Other measures include the Saving Gateway, which encourages people on low incomes to save, and Money Guidance, the free money advice service.
Recent Work
In order to explore and draw attention to black and minority ethnic people’s experiences of financial exclusion and to recommend ways in which the barriers people meet can be overcome, we have published a number of reports over the past two years.
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Why do Assets Matter? Assets, Equality and Ethnicity: Building Towards Financial Inclusion (2010)
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Financial Inclusion and Ethnicity: An Agenda for Research and Policy Action (2008) |
Funded by Friends Provident Foundation, our initial report uses research evidence to describe the situation of black and minority ethnic people of various backgrounds in terms of the financial exclusion and the wider disadvantage they experience. It also makes recommendations to further explore barriers and improve financial inclusion for all.
