Financial Recovery Action Group meeting: 14 January 2021

NestEgg ran a Covid-19 Financial Recovery Action Group meeting on January 14 2021. More than 50 lenders and stakeholders participated.

The meeting showed a huge desire to collaborate. Because of this more time is needed for detailed action planning. Sign up below to continue the conversation.

Strategies for recovery

Getting declined loan applications from banks and building societies into responsible lenders is a clear priority. Responsible lenders may automatically accept bank-declined borrowers.  Many more applicants are marginal declines. With a bit of work, these could be accepted within a short period of time.

Feedback from our panel of speakers and the breakout groups showed:

  1. A need to take the long view. ‘Long Covid’ drags on the impact of Coronavirus physically. But so can the economic impact of the virus. Interventions for support will last longer than lockdown.
  2. Covid-19 is an opportunity for responsible lenders. 1,000s of people are being turned down for credit. And for the first time. Applicants don’t know about credit unions. Nor CDFIs. When they do, many fail to make an application. This is because the online experience isn’t always as good as it could be.
  3. Third parties and stakeholders want to grow community lenders. Many support people suffering financially because of Covid-19. Stakeholders can help persuade banks to refer declined loans to community lenders.
  4. However, in the past local bank referrals haven’t always been successful. For example, the quality of applications has been low. Key personnel move on. There needs to be a coordinated response at the senior level to make this work.
  5. Banks aren’t the only organisations that can refer people needing a loan to responsible lenders. A huge range of agencies are ready to partner with the sector, helping more people access affordable credit.
  6.  Engaging with banks at a centralised level would be easier if there were specific online places these referrals could go. Therefore, centralised technological solutions should be available. The NestEgg app and forthcoming consumer website fits perfectly into NestEgg Financial Recovery Action Group Slides Jan 2021this marketplace.

Documents from the meeting

Download the slides: NestEgg Financial Recovery Action Group Slides Jan 2021

Watch the recording:

Next steps

To move from talking to action, you can help 100,000 low paid workers access affordable credit by partnering with NestEgg. To deliver Nesta’s Rapid Recovery Challenge we need more organisations to work with to refer and receive loan applications from those in low-paid work or insecure employment.

Fill in the short form below to fix a short call to discuss how you can partner with dozens of lenders and stakeholders to make this happen.