UK government taskforce pushes for women-led enterprise

A new government report titled Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce looks at the funding gaps and challenges faced by female entrepreneurs.

Chaired by Starling Bank founder Anne Boden, the taskforce aims to encourage more women to take up STEM subjects and boost the number of women-led businesses.

Between 18% to 25% of high-growth enterprises include one or more women on the founding team, while all-female teams make up just 7% to 13%.

Women-led high-growth businesses have considerably less access than other businesses to finance from the firms that the FCA regulates.

The report calls for regulatory action: “While investment firms will play an important role in improving the outlook for women-led businesses, there may also need to be changes made to regulation. The Taskforce welcomes the timely consultation launched by the FCA which is examining diversity and inclusion in the financial sector.”

The Taskforce has raised two key issues for further consideration by the FCA:

• The 250+ employee threshold above which most of the proposals in the consultation apply, is too high. It excludes virtually all the firms in the VC and private equity (PE) sectors where high-growth businesses typically look for equity finance.
• The proposals in the consultation are inward looking only. They concern Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) within firms and are not concerned with the broader D&I effects of the way that firms treat their customers and investee companies.

The report found that women-led high-growth businesses have considerably less access than other businesses to finance from the firms that the FCA regulates.

The authors say change should be driven by investor action and monitoring, as well as regulation.

Credit card complaints at all-time high

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the UK has said it has seen the highest number of complaints in a three-month period since records began in financial year 2014-15.

Consumers made 5,600 complaints between October and December 2023, 76% more than in the same period in 2022. Of these, 3,086 were due to perceived unaffordable or irresponsible lending by financial firms.

“The vast majority of unaffordable lending complaints are being brought by professional representatives. While professional representatives have an important role to play, we’re currently seeing some poorly evidenced complaints,” Viv Kelly, Ombudsman Director for Consumer Credit at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said.

“Consumers don’t need to use a professional representative to bring a complaint to our service. People can come directly to our free, independent service and we’ll see if we can help resolve their complaint.”

Almost three quarters of the credit card and unaffordable lending complaints were brought by professional representatives, compared with just a quarter of these complaints in the third quarter of 2022/23.

“Lenders have a duty to support their customers whatever their circumstances and are obliged to help people who are struggling with debt.”

Abby Thomas, Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman, Financial Ombudsman Service

Aside from credit cards, the other four categories in the top five most-complained-about products were current accounts, hire purchase (motor), car/motorcycle insurance and buildings insurance, all of which saw year-on-year increases.

“Lenders have a duty to support their customers whatever their circumstances and are obliged to help people who are struggling with debt,” Abby Thomas, Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service, said.

Over half of employees concerned about low financial literacy

A survey by employee benefits company Pluxee shows over half (51%) of employees surveyed are embarrassed about their level of financial literacy.

According to the research, only 46% of HR professionals actively promote a culture of financial openness, with a mere 16% of employees actually feeling this support at work. 

“Employers play a big role in helping with financial smarts and overall wellbeing by promoting financial openness and offering guidance, as well as access to relevant resources,” said Burcin Ressamoglu, CEO, Pluxee UK.

Money worries are on employees’ minds, with 75% saying they worry about money at least monthly, while over 26% have daily concerns.

Two thirds of HR professionals report a surge in requests for financial education or support initiatives in the past year, with a fifth of employees proactively seeking financial wellbeing support.

“As leaders, we must educate and empower our workforce by building a culture of financial knowledge and offering tangible support where we can through workplace benefits and initiatives. Let’s make financial literacy a shared conversation and responsibility,” Ressamoglu says.