Ten More Fintechs Pledge To Alleviate the UK Cost-of-Living Crisis

The number of fintechs tackling the UK’s cost of living crisis through the 2025 Fintech Pledge has doubled.

Ten new members of the fintech community have joined the 2025 Fintech Pledge to provide resolutions to the UK’s economic crisis.

Founded last September by Zopa Bank and ClearScore, the initiative intends to cultivate financial resilience among UK consumers. Ultimately, it aims to drive 10 million consumer actions by the year 2025.

To date, more than one million actions have been reported from all members combined, with 530,000 already publicly displayed on the pledge2025.org website.

This is being achieved by connecting consumers to platforms that make their money go further. Its connectivity includes platforms that improve credit scores, consolidate debt and lower utility bills and outgoing costs.

Ten companies first joined the Pledge in October, which brought the coalition number to 12. Google Cloud, Hargreaves Lansdown and the digital savings platform StepLadder were among that initial cohort. Two months later and 10 more are now on board.

The second wave of expansion

With a vow to expedite the UK’s economic recovery, the Pledge’s 10 newest members include:

• Car finance and loan provider Blue Motor Finance
• Credit building service for renters Canopy
• Community and knowledge hub Open Banking Excellence
• Debt advisory and management provider PayPlan
• Pensions aggregator Penny
• Open banking network Plaid
• Debt Advice charity StepChange
• Open banking platform Tink
• Policy and regulatory network The Financial Inclusion Alliance 
• Credit building service Wollit

Members agree to clearly define, measure and quantify actions that contribute to the campaign goal of 10 million actions on a monthly basis.

Alongside reporting members, the pledge has opened three new membership categories in preparation for further growth in 2023.

The first category includes subject-specific registered charities with financial resilience insight. Meanwhile, the second is for industry enablers able to facilitate introductions into new ecosystems.

And the final category is designated for external supporters with product offerings adjacent to, but separate from, those of the pledge. External supporters also raise brand awareness beyond their core ecosystem and link it to other relevant industry discussions.

“Financial concerns are impacting more people than ever due to inflation and increasing interest rates,” comments Zopa Bank CEO, Jaidev Janardana.

“Recent FCA data shows that one in four adults are in financial trouble or at the brink of difficulty,” he explains.

Janardana points to the corresponding data from the ONS to emphasise this. The data found that almost half who pay energy bills and 30 per cent of rent or mortgage payers are struggling with costs.

“Launching the pledge was a natural step for us,” says Janardana, which is supporting the ethos of driving better financial outcomes for customers.

Plans for 2023

Following the second stage of onboarding and reporting, the pledge continues to seek new members.

The focus of its future operations will measure the impact of its consumer actions alongside forming consumer partnerships to extend its reach.

“As we get ready to roll out our first set of 2023 consumer partnerships,” continues Janardana, “I actively encourage members of the UK fintech ecosystem to help UK consumers weather this financial shock by joining the pledge.”