News and Blogs Helping vulnerable customers prepare for digital banking

“I work in the vulnerable customer team, offering specialized support to underserved, vulnerable customers. They may be vulnerable for various reasons – mental health, physical health, homelessness, things like that. These are people who need access to finances but perhaps can't manage them or need to be supported in doing so. For example, they may have lending products and are defaulting, so my role involves providing in-depth support for such things. So, it’s customer service, but very specialised.”

“My background is actually youth work, mostly as a sound engineer and workshop creator and facilitator. As I was affected quite badly during the pandemic, I had to pivot into another field. So, during lockdown, I started to study.

I did the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification and started really learning about cloud structure. So that’s what really got me going with fintech. I’m very much from the analogue era, but tech really suits me – being able to learn, grow and not be left behind.

Working in the banking sector appealed to me because it was an opportunity to work with new technology as well as with people.”

“Throughout history, there've been these kind of evolutionary jumps, and it feels like we're literally on the precipice of another one with digital technology. Although I am on the start of my journey, what I'm seeing is there's likely to be a wave of challenges before this can happen for everyone.

In my role, I've gained more awareness of my lack of education in certain areas – my understanding of fintech, in particular.

My organisation offered training as part of our introduction and Certified Fintech Practitioner was one of the courses that was suggested. I started to look into it and thought: this looks interesting.”

“Throughout history, there've been these kind of evolutionary jumps, and it feels like we're literally on the precipice of another one with digital technology. Although I am on the start of my journey, what I'm seeing is there's likely to be a wave of challenges before this can happen for everyone.

In my role, I've gained more awareness of my lack of education in certain areas – my understanding of fintech, in particular.

My organisation offered training as part of our introduction and Certified Fintech Practitioner was one of the courses that was suggested. I started to look into it and thought: this looks interesting.”

“The way it's structured made it easy to study – so long as I stayed on top of things. I consider myself neurodiverse, especially in the way that I process information. But the way the coursework was broken down made things easier for me. Some of the speakers were also really engaging, which helped.

I was surprised how eye opening and interesting the content on fintech’s potential was when it comes to sustainability. I have to say that the module on the environmental factors that are impacting the development of digital finance and fintech completely blew me away. I was hearing both my personal and professional feelings around the underserved and their access to fintech, reflected back to me in a way that completely shifted my mindset and really helped me to understand the scope of things and just how much potential fintech has.”

What advice would you give to students or those looking to start a fintech related career?

“My advice would be one start to look at the different areas that you can work in, as fintech is a broad field. Doing a course like CFP is a good way to get an understanding of what’s what. You’ll have access to materials and speakers who can go into more depth, so you can start looking into the different areas that interest you.

That's why I think the timing of the Fintech practitioner course worked really well, as it gives you a good overview whilst being broad enough that you keep your options open.”

“When it comes to working with vulnerable customers, technology presents some challenges. Of course, there are things like cybercrime, phishing, and crypto scams to consider, but it’s also important that vulnerable customers are supported in the use of new technologies, like open banking, that might offer additional services and can make a positive impact on how they manage their money.

It will be important for banking professionals, especially those in customer facing roles, to have an understanding of fintech and how it fits into the bigger picture, so they can better serve their customers.

There are already so many amazing things from the digital era and, if we can meet the challenges, there are plenty more to come.”