What more can banks do to tackle financial exclusion? Barclays and Co-op to give evidence
The House of Lords Committee on Financial Exclusion will next week hear from Barclays and the Co-operative Bank on what banks are doing to help alleviate financial exclusion.
The evidence session will start at 10:40am on Tuesday 19 July in Committee Room 2A of the House of Lords. The witnesses will be:
- Catherine McGrath, Managing Director, Transactions, Insurance and Mass Market, Barclays
- Matthew Carter, Director of Products and Marketing, The Co-operative Bank
Areas the session will cover include
- How do the banks define financial exclusion and what incentive or motivation is there for banks to try to address it?
- To what extent is a bank's work to tackle financial exclusion part of their corporate responsibility agenda and how far is it about business generation? To what extent are the board members engaged with work on financial exclusion?
- How many people are taking up basic bank accounts? How are basic bank accounts marketed?
- What support do banks offer for customers in financial difficulties? Do they direct customers to organisations that may be able to provide assistance?
- Is there a role for banks in contributing to financial education in schools?
It is expected the Committee will publish its Call for Evidence setting out the issues its inquiry will cover later in the same week.
