Q&A: Zopa CCO on how fintechs can tackle the cost of living crisis

Clare Gambardella, Chief Customer Officer at Zopa, explains why the fintech is leading the 2025 Fintech Pledge.

FSF: What is the concept of the Fintech 2025 pledge?

Clare: The 2025 Fintech Pledge is a cross-industry coalition of fintechs and their industry partners joining forces to help tackle the UK cost-of-living crisis. Our objective is to drive 10 million consumer actions by 2025 that build up the financial resilience of UK consumers.

We will achieve this by connecting people to fintech platforms that make a) savings work harder, b) improve credit scores, c) consolidate debt, and d) lower utility bills.

Launched in September 2022 and rapidly growing, we currently have 12 members and many more in the pipeline.

Members are either fintechs who directly contribute to the 10 million actions target, or ‘industry enablers’ like Google Cloud who facilitate introductions to their ecosystems and accelerate pledge adoption.

Where did the idea come from?

The pledge’s ethos of driving better financial outcomes for customers has always been in Zopa Bank’s DNA. However – as we saw the cost-of-living crisis unfold, we felt that more needed to be done to help customers build their resilience and that the best way to do this was by creating a coalition of partners who could achieve scale and impact which we could not do alone.

To determine where to focus our efforts, we looked at a range of data sources in order to understand the biggest challenges that consumers face right now and to identify actions which could have the biggest impact for them.  We were fortunate to find an initial lead partner in ClearScore who helped us to refine and develop our thinking to create the pledge as it exists today.

Why is Zopa spearheading this?

We are deeply concerned about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our customers and UK consumers more generally. As Zopa has a long history of challenging the status quo of the financial services industry on behalf of the consumer, we wanted to use that experience to make a positive difference in the crisis. Whilst government interventions like the energy price guarantee are steps in the right direction, Zopa Bank and its lead partners feel that the fintech industry can play a key role in helping people protect and build their financial resilience both now and long-term. For us and our partners – that is a very motivating way to focus our efforts in response to the crisis.

In a hypercompetitive industry, do you think it is possible for companies to put the interests of consumers ahead of competition?

Yes, and we must. We have plenty of common ground because all pledge members are united in their desire to change historically bad and unrewarding practices to better benefit consumers.

The pledge is also unique as it covers four different pillars: savings, credit, debt consolidation, and utility switching. This allows for a wide range of companies with varying viewpoints and skill sets to join forces in order to contribute to the overall impact.

Why do you feel fintech, as opposed to financial services as a whole, has a special opportunity or responsibility to tackle these challenges?

Fintech businesses are well placed to drive change because of the capabilities that they tend to share. Many of these businesses are data-led and as such can identify, drive and track meaningful interventions. They also tend to be businesses that are grounded in driving fast-paced, tech-led innovation, which allows them to create solutions in an agile way. They also tend to attract employees who want to disrupt old models and find better solutions for people.  Ultimately, they aim to provide consumers with tools and product choices that support them better than traditional financial services.

However, we acknowledge that some long-standing providers share this spirit and with that in mind, we welcome new partners from a variety of corners of the industry, provided they are aligned with the pledge’s mission.

What are your plans for the next 12 months?

We’ve had growing interest from businesses since launching the pledge and have a number of exciting conversations in progress, so we hope to grow the membership group of the pledge steadily. This is important to provide wide choice and access for customers.

We aim to continually track and drive the number of actions that consumers are taking as we progress. To expand awareness of the pledge with customers and ensure that as many people as possible benefit from it, we will also look for a partner or partners outside of the industry sector who can help us to raise awareness.

We will be constantly reviewing and revisiting the pledge to see what’s working, and what needs to be improved. Through quarterly check-ins with the cohort, we will find new ways to bolster the pledge and reach more people around the country.