Salad's new impact report demonstrates our 2024 social and economic impact and puts an important question to everyone seeking to address financial exclusion.
The report, published today (31 October 2024) reveals that we saved customers an average of £497 in interest each, on an average loan amount of £940 in 2023-24 – keeping £30m in their household budgets.*
And we helped 279,764 applicants (not just our customers) to identify £63.5m in unclaimed benefits they were entitled to, an average of £227 each.
Since our 2023 impact report, which asked regulators, policymakers and banks to address the pernicious impact of bad, ugly or no credit on excluded households, there has been progress.
The Government has pledged a National Financial Inclusion Strategy; the Financial Conduct Authority has proposed remedies to deliver better consumer outcomes in light of its Credit Information Market Study, which we contributed to; more banks and other investors are backing Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) like Salad, recognising our unique reach.
But millions of people continue to be failed by unfair lending practices and market failures, with devastating consequences
Our report demonstrates how Salad, now the UK's largest consumer-lending CDFI, is creating a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable mid-cost credit market.
It includes impact data and commentary from key stakeholders such as Kate Pender of Fair4All Finance,
And, most importantly when "many policymakers and regulators do not understand the lives of people who are living in poverty or who are excluded from markets" (Fabian Society and Fair By Design), our report includes stories from a diverse range of people formerly excluded from financial services.
We thank Zak, Jenni, Tendai, Stuart, Justin and Adesegun for their openness in sharing their experiences.
We are proud of the outcomes we catalyse for underserved and otherwise-excluded consumers and determined to expand our many collaborations in the interests of real finnancial inclusion.
And we ask policymakers, regulators, social investors and everyone committed to tackling financial exclusion: please reflect on the data and stories in this report.
* Calculated by comparison with the lender most commonly used by our customers.
