Systemic Barriers to Financial Inclusion Project - Rapid Literature Review: Launched in Parliament and Grounded in 20 Years of Community Leadership

Money A+E has launched the Equity in Finance Literature Review, partnered with Rooted Finance and ClearView Research. Presented in Parliament on 3 April 2025, the review highlights the systemic barriers facing diverse ethnic communities and provides a clear path toward a fairer financial system.

Why This Work Began

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Money A+E saw a sharp rise in crisis debt, income loss and financial instability. Our lived experience steering committee identified the structural discrimination at the core of these issues and called it the “Ethnicity Premium”.

Money A+E is a Black and lived-experience-led organisation with more than a decade delivering money advice, financial education and wellbeing services. Our CEO, Jerry During, has over 20 years of experience in financial inclusion and community-led change.

Key Findings from the Review

• Black households remain nearly twice as likely to be unbanked

• Nearly half of diverse ethnic entrepreneurs face barriers to business finance

• Ethnicity, postcode and digital profiling drive unequal lending

• Black applicants are more than three times as likely to be denied a mortgage compared to White applicants

  
  

Five Recommendations for an Inclusive Financial System

1. Mandate Transparency and Fairness in Finance Ethnicity-disaggregated data. Fairness audits. Senior accountability.

2. Recognise Alternative Financial Histories Include rent, utilities, council tax, remittances and community savings models like Pardna, Susu and Hagbad.

3. Enforce Representation and Lived-Experience Recruitment Diverse leadership, mandatory reporting and independent audits.

4. Deliver Culturally Relevant Financial Education and Fair Debt Recovery Community-led design, multilingual access and equitable debt support.

5. Expand Access to Finance for Diverse Ethnic Communities Accessible start-up funding, strengthened community lenders and partnerships with anchor institutions.

Shared Commitment to System Change

Money A+E and Rooted Finance are united in our commitment to dismantling structural financial exclusion. This report marks a shared evidence-based call for reform. While we will deliver different parts of this work through our respective organisations, our goals remain aligned: fair access, economic participation, and systemic change that works for communities too often left behind.

To read the full Equity in Finance Literature Review, called Systemic Barriers to Financial Inclusion Project, click here.

If you would like to discuss the findings or explore partnership opportunities, please contact (CEO & Founder at Money A+E) at jerryduring@moneyaande.co.uk