Governing inclusive finance workshop: towards a manifesto for change

The Governing Inclusive Finance Workshop was designed to foster new conversations between academics and multiple stakeholder groups in response to problems of financial exclusion, and possibilities for fostering progressive change. On Wednesday 27 June 2018, a diverse group of credit unions, community banks, alternative lenders, local-, county- and regional- government officials, advisory organizations and academic researchers – each involved or interested in financial provision for historically excluded people, families and communities – joined one another in conversation around three core themes: Making visible the lived realities of financial exclusion in the UK; Alleviating financial hardship: organizational successes and ongoing governance challenges; and Developing a manifesto for financial justice. By coming together as a group around these themes – discussing them freely and sharing experiences, challenges and ideas – our overarching aim was to begin an ongoing conversation around financial inclusion in the UK with a view to imagining more socially just forms of financial inclusion: i.e. forms of finance that have 'inclusiveness' at their heart. The day was arranged around three sessions in which a panel of experts each spoke for ten minutes about their experiences and ideas. The goal was to keep the format as relaxed as possible (no power point presentations!) – just the participants sharing themselves, their organizations and the people they deal with day-to-day. An academic Chair kept the sessions moving and on time, firing animating questions at the panel members, then guiding all participants through the various breakout discussions and plenary conversations. All in all, the day was filled with lively conversation and mutual engagement as a sense of purpose and potential filled the air