Humane Economics & The #CovidSpring Ep 6 - Fintech Tackling the Poverty Trap with Fairer Finance Hackathon Winners Finexos

Frontier Tech Radio

So, today we interview. Finexos, the winners of the fair finance hackathon about their solution to the mountain of stress and distress already at a peak before the pandemic and the mental health crisis it is driving. And what can be done.

President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Dr Adrian James has predicted: "there is going to be a big surge – we refer to it as a tsunami – of mental illness as a result of the pandemic".

Meanwhile according to the FCA 26 million people in the UK showing signs of difficulty in terms of their finances - via an an analysis of bank accounts.

"So this is a massive problem. There's £450 billion of unsecured debt out there, where individuals in the UK are reliant on high interest revolving credit, just to meet day to day finances. So our challenge is to disrupt that circle of high interest, low disposable income - and so stress on the individual mental health." Says Steven Bone, chair of Finexos.

As he points out this situation fundamentally bad for society - as UK poverty and the poverty trap is growing driving poverty, financial stress and anxiety.

Pre pandemic over 20% of the UK population was in Poverty with 14.9 million consumers now behind on their bills and 5.7 million people in receipt of Universal Credit - many using food banks due to the cost of repaying debt. So our 'safety net' has been so shredded that many have no choice other than the high cost lenders.

We talk about the five years of development to create an innovative fintech platform that can help people not just by ensuring their finances become more controllable and intuitive, but that they have support and better alternatives too. And the new solutions coming in the first half of 2021 - not a moment too soon!

Watch the video interview at https://youtu.be/XTHrpDoGUko

See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network.