The UK fintech sector forms a crucial part of the British economy.
In the last 15 years, firms have revolutionised people’s financial lives by reducing costs, enabling innovation, and enhancing security.
This impact has been driven by the highly competitive nature of companies like Wise, ClearScore and ourselves at Zopa Bank, to name a few.
However, facing large-scale unprecedented issues like the cost-of-living crisis, competition alone is no longer enough.
One in four adults are in financial trouble or at the brink of difficulty, and the number of people classified with low financial resilience has
increased by millions.
We are only capable of supporting consumers with these big problems by working together.
The financial technology industry has been built on the principle of driving positive change for customers and so we must act now. With industry collaboration, we can create solutions that can help prevent consumers from falling into trouble, enabling them
to build up their financial resilience.
Introducing the 2025 Fintech Pledge
This was the thinking behind the 2025 Fintech Pledge, the industry coalition created by Zopa Bank and ClearScore that mobilised a cross-industry coalition of fintechs firms and their industry partners like Google Cloud,
Salesforce, PayPlan, and StepChange who joined forces to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
The coalition’s objective is to drive 25 million consumer actions by 2025 that build up the financial resilience of UK consumers. At an average of one action per person, 25 million actions represent approximately 50% of the UK adult population taking a positive
step towards improved financial resilience.
The Pledge is achieving this by incentivising unprecedented cross-industry collaboration and by connecting consumers to financial technology platforms that
a) make savings work harder;
b) improve credit scores;
c) consolidate debt; and
d) lower utility bills and household outgoing costs.
As a result, in just 16 months the Pledge coalition has amassed 50 members with a combined 25 million customer base; its members have collectively achieved over 9 million actions that improve financial resilience.
In parallel, funded by the Pledge, the Money Charity is delivering a multi-year programme of workshops that markedly increases the financial capability of those who need it most, from 45 to 82% after completing the training. These vital workshops have a
variety of consumers attending, including care leavers, young women through the Young Women’s Trust, people with a learning disability, and people who are or have been homeless.
Our content hub Master My Money along with the Pledge’s TikTok
campaign is helping consumers better understand and manage their money; to date it has reached around 3 million users, receiving thousands of clicks.
Lessons for collaboration
One year in, the 2025 Fintech Pledge team has learnt a great deal about what makes a successful collaboration really successful. These boil down to four key takeaways:
1. Agreeing realistic targets that are ambitious yet achievable
The Pledge has big ambitions, but these are specific and centred around tangible focus areas. We spent time carefully researching where consumers needed the most help, what could help them build financial resilience, and critically, where we and our members
can credibly and authentically add the most value.
2. Designing a coalition with strong governance
It was important to understand the strengths of each Pledge member from the outset. Following the initial launch, we split members into different categories: contributing members submitting actions to the target; B2B-focused enablers that raise awareness
and introduce other potential members; charities that are delivering support on the frontline to consumers; and allies who are aligned with the spirit of the Pledge or have relevant resources for consumers.
3. A multi-year approach drives more impact
By breaking up the project over three years and introducing clear KPIs we can continually move into new impactful areas and maximise our reach. The first year was about expansion, building the coalition’s foundations, creating a financial education hub and
supporting The Money Charity. We are now busy evolving our priority pillars to include new working groups in 2024; whilst in 2025 we hope to go even bigger by announcing a large consumer partnership that will meet consumers in their native environments.
4. Every partner should have a voice
We made sure to create a collaborative environment where members can give one-another feedback in a safe space and get involved in leading work streams. Some members will move faster, others will go deeper. Our role as a catalyst of collective action is
to bring every partner together, under one roof.
We are just getting started
Now over a year in, we want to do more.
As we move closer to 2024, we are considering how the Pledge will evolve the way it delivers impact through innovative products and partnerships. This includes refining our challenge, identifying the best areas to focus on, and how our wide variety of members
can further support the scheme.
For example, a team of 90 Zopa and Google Cloud engineers recently joined forces to ascertain how quickly we could build a prototype tool that draws high quality conversational responses around financial resilience, using Generative AI and Large Language
Models.
Importantly, at our recent 1-year anniversary event we discussed the setup of new Pledge working groups. These groups will help to solve specific problems for consumers and will
look at expanding our pillars of action.
The new sector leaders that will emerge from these discussions will drive the future of the Pledge as it continues to expand and evolve, adding their expertise and exponential capabilities to those of other members with similar interests.
There’s never been a better time to join the Pledge. To get involved in the 2025 Fintech Pledge or to drive a new pillar of action please contact join@pledge2025.org or visit
www.pledge2025.org.