Talking Money: How can we stop people from being financially excluded?
Great inroads has been made in recent years to drive down Britain's remaining 3 million unbanked citizens.
Today, roughly 1.3 million Britons remain unbanked and fall into the category of being financially excluded.
Some are living in poverty, others are vulnerable and some live with extreme wealth and face different barriers when it comes to banking.
The Scotsman's Talking Money event panel this November took a closer look at the topic of financial exclusion and provided a platform for speakers from a cross section of the financial industry here in Scotland.
Event Chair Dave Lee was joined by Caroline Stevenson from event host Womble Bond Dickinson (Legal Director) Barry Connolly from RBS (Everyday, Personal & Business Banking), The Fairbanking Foundation's Teresa Perchard (Chairwoman), Callum Murray of Amiqus (Founder & Chief Executive) and Fintech Scotland's Nicola Anderson (Strategic Development Director).
Together, the panel told the audience in Womble Bond Dickinson's Edinburgh office that a mix of technology, data and highly personalised service was required to tackle the remaining unbanked.
"Not that many years ago there were three million people in the UK who were unbanked," Barry Connolly told the audience, adding "we have solved two thirds of that problem and we are now down to the last million."
Womble Bond Dickinson's Caroline Stevenson told The Scotsman that the first step is "to start the conversation".
She said: "We need to start talking about it and highlighting it as an actual problem and that needs to be from the top down.
For Caroline, a common hurdle for the financial excluded is identity: "Identity is a real key enabler to be able to access financial services and without that there's a huge problem."
However, financial inclusion isn't just about getting a bank account. Teresa Perchard told the audience it's also about "effective money management and wellbeing."
To hear more from all our panelists and find out what's being done across the sector to tackle financial exclusion watch the video in the player above and read Dave Lee's summary of the event here.