Some people might still be a bit wary of the term ‘fintech’ as it may conjure up images of 20-somethings playing table football or sitting on bean bags instead of at their desks.
All perceptions aside, what’s undeniable is that as a still newly emergent sector, fintech has achieved some incredible results, driving change and improvement at a pace that traditional businesses with all the legacy processes and IT baggage simply could not.
For those of us who have lived and worked through the era where paper trails slowly made their way onto the small screen, you only have to think about tasks that took ages to complete and are now done in a matter of clicks.
For all these reasons, I’m really proud to have spent my career in financial technology and in fintech in one guise or another, working for large businesses in London to smaller ones closer to home in Wales. Many of those were providing solutions for big corporations or improving systems by their very nature – making things better, yes – but doing good? I’m not sure.
And that’s what attracted me to IE Hub, as a start-up in Cardiff with a purpose which was and is very much doing good, and one that I knew from my previous experience was badly needed in the market.
IE Hub is a free online budgeting tool that helps people in debt work out their income and expenditure that they can then share with their creditors. It is a true fintech that has been created for the benefit of its users, to helping those in financial trouble work out a payment plan and allow them to take control of their financial future.
This really is a fintech for good, as we provide so much help and support for people in financial difficulty. We help them understand their position, maximise their income and manage multiple difficult creditor conversations. Our solution means they create their budget once, in their own time, at their own pace and share it with multiple creditors.
Sixty seven percent of consumers who use our platform are eligible for more than £5,000 a year in additional benefits. In many cases that effectively equates to a 25% pay increase and helps people pay off their debt more quickly.
Collaboration with other companies and creditors is key to the ongoing success of IE Hub too. Many of these are fintechs themselves. They understand the duty of care they have to their customers and have embraced our solution, realising that partnering with a fintech for good like IE Hub will help all come to a mutually beneficial resolution.
So while ‘Fintech for good’ as a term comes with many perceptions attached, at its simplest it’s a movement that uses technology in positive ways to address social, environmental or economic challenges. It’s a term that the sector should be proud of and champion at every opportunity.
I’m proud to say that I believe we at IE Hub truly embody it.
