Read: New report shows financial services sector can play a major role in levelling up

Specialist lending and savings bank, Aldermore, today launched its Report to Society 2022. It shows how it is making a positive societal impact, alongside its financial and operational goals, and includes recommendations for how it can play an even greater role in levelling up the financial services sector and society more widely.

Founded in 2009 during another economically challenging period, Aldermore’s ambition has always been to be a responsible business that makes a positive difference. It aims to open up banking to people and businesses who find it difficult to get finance and advice from the traditional financial sector while providing genuine value to all its stakeholders.

The Report to Society has been supported by the Purpose Coalition. The report is the first of its kind at Aldermore but one which will be repeated annually, as it refines its work and processes to better measure the bank’s impact. It considers Aldermore’s work against an innovative set of 14 Purpose Goals, known in the UK as Levelling Up Goals, which provide a way of generating benchmarks, targeting social impact more effectively and collaborating through the sharing of best practice.

Goal 7 Access to savings and credit With its CEO, Steven Cooper, as Commissioner for the Goal and involved in developing metrics for it, the bank brings its expertise, ambition and personal touch to help shape what levelling up really means for this issue. As the current cost of living pressures increase, it is focusing on financial resilience and on supporting first-time buyers in the housing market. It also advocates financial education from an early age, better support from employers for their workforce’s financial wellbeing, especially those in their first jobs, and better access to and communication about financial products;

Goal 5: Open recruitment Strategic hiring and fair recruitment processes which actively seek out diverse and disadvantaged people who may have thought the financial services sector was not for them, partnerships with local schools and an extensive apprenticeship scheme to facilitate diverse talent pathways into the bank;

Goal 9: Extending enterprise An approach which enables people to create their own jobs, often in communities where other opportunities are limited, and which prioritises strategic assistance for SMEs;

Goal 12: Building homes and sustainable communities Strategic financial support in areas which need it most to build safe communities with a good quality of life and the development of an environmental action plan, including a net zero strategy;

Goal 14: Achieve equality, through diversity and inclusion In a traditionally male-dominated industry, it is taking steps to drive gender and ethnic diversity, supporting its managers to develop more inclusive teams. Its active work on the Equality of Opportunity Commission has seen the beginning of a comprehensive campaign of socioeconomic and diversity measurement.

The report also includes recommendations for future action to strengthen Aldermore’s positive social impact, leveraging its position as an industry leader. They include contextualising its customer needs using more effective data to tailor its products, fully building its external talent pipeline to link in existing community and outreach work and to link to more social mobility cold spots, continuing that pipeline internally to track performance within the organisation and joining other Purpose Coalition members in the Open Door project, linking students with employment opportunities at organisations whose values align with theirs, including its own SME customer base.

CEO of Aldermore, Steven Cooper, said: “With the country facing a particularly challenging economic period, it’s more important than ever that we embrace our responsibility to society. We’re well placed to do this as we were founded in 2009 during tough economic circumstances, with the purpose of supporting those who had been overlooked by the high street banks. 13 years later and that ambition is still fundamentally at the centre of everything we do; with our purpose to back more people to go for it, in life and business, while playing our part to build a sustainable future.” 

Chair of the Purpose Coalition, Rt Hon Justine Greening, said: “This report highlights the huge impact that the financial services sector can have on equality of opportunity. Aldermore’s very active focus on financial inclusion is more relevant than ever. The pandemic and now the economic and environmental pressures the country is facing have both clearly highlighted how those without financial security, or access to savings and credit, get left behind. Providing financial inclusivity brings equality of opportunity to those who would otherwise have missed out, giving individuals the chance to aspire to a better life and communities the chance to generate business and jobs.

“As a leading member of the Purpose Coalition and Equality of Opportunity Coalition, Aldermore can play a key role in shaping how this country ensures that equality of opportunity is a reality for everyone. Many organisations are now thinking much more creatively about how they do that and are delivering a range of innovative solutions with more diverse workforces as a result. That not only produces better results for the business but for society more broadly. This report demonstrates how Aldermore is not only successfully changing things for the better but is prepared to do the hard yards in assessing its progress so that it can achieve even more in the future.”