Fair Finance raises £3m of social investment and (crucially) commercial finance for its Personal Lending business. It is the first time a deal like this is completed in the UK microfinance market. Supporters include Santander, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Nesta, Panahpur and the Ashoka Support Network.
History
Fair Finance’s CEO is invited to become a contributing columnist on the issues of financial exclusion. For the next three years the articles brought to attention of the general public the practices of the industry, the stories of the high cost credit users and alternatives to the payday and doorstep sector. The articles are cited by politicians, policy makers and the banking industry and help to drive change. You can find his page here.
Fair Finance’s debt advice team win backing of the Government’s Financial Inclusion Fund and increase team to serve all of East London. Fair Finance opens its second office in Dalston, Hackney.
Ashoka, the global network for social entrepreneurs awards one of its first UK Fellowships to Faisel Rahman in recognition of the system changing potential of Fair Finance to reduce financial exclusion in the UK.
Fair Finance becomes one of the first community finance organisations in the country to start updating client payment histories to Experian. This helps to improve their credit scores and eventually access mainstream finance.
