The Member Companies Doing Good with FFG

“It’s finance, but not as you know it. It’s finance for good.”

Ross Boyd, founder of the always-on mortgage app Dashly, recently summed up the difference between the member companies in Finance for Good versus average financial businesses. Member companies collaborate to increase their positive impact on society by providing financial products that bring greater stability to consumer bank accounts – and peace of mind. These services have a ripple effect, and drive towards one of the major roots of poverty in the UK – financial literacy.

The key difference is the business mindset: people, not profit.

Sure, Finance for Good companies care about succeeding and flourishing, but for a unique reason. FFG member companies want to become firmly established and recognisable by consumers because these companies are focused on adding tangible value to the lives of financial customers. Companies functioning in FFG are not in competition, but see the variety of member company services as complementary ways of dramatically improving the financial health of individuals – while also correcting the ways in which the financial sector has become too chaotic and self-focused.

Who’s in FFG?

Castlight

The central drive behind Castlight’s incredible product, The Affordability Passport, is providing better financial advice. It allows customers to give their financial advisers the green light to access their bank transactions for a real-time – and realistic – picture of their expenditures, bills, savings, assets and anything else than can affect their borrowing ability. What is most helpful about Castlight’s product is that it prevents the financial adviser – and the customer – from overestimating or underestimating what they can afford in real life, not just on paper.

The more information a financial adviser has, the greater their ability to provide personalised, insightful advice on how a customer can reach their financial goals, whether it’s buying a house or taking out a small loan to renovate the kitchen. By enabling these adviser’s to understand the true financial habits of their customers, they can help their customers correct financial mistakes they may be making and -best of all – help their customers avoid getting trapped in payments, deals, or contracts they cannot actually afford.

Dashly

Dashly is a revolutionary mortgage app that has the whole UK mortgage market talking. With Dashly, each mortgage customer has a profile in which they input their mortgage information – it takes about 10-15 minutes. That information is then securely compared to over 8000 mortgage products daily, where it is challenged, in detail, against other available mortgage deals.

Dashly is always-on and completely personalised, calculating every factor from early repayment charges to all the fees hidden in the mortgage contract fine print. Dashly works as a robo-broker, but one which requires zero input from customers after the initial setup.

When Dashly finds a deal that fits the unique circumstances of the mortgage holder – and saves them real money – they are immediately alerted with the details, and can choose whether to switch, or stay. If they stay and wait for a better deal, they receive the same service. If they choose to switch, they have the opportunity to work with one of Dashly’s in-house mortgage brokers who – with all the information already at hand – can fast-track the process and get them on a new deal and saving money in record time. Or they can switch with their own broker – either way, Dashly still does what it is created to do: save people money.

Dashly’s role as a mortgage revolutionary is key to FFG’s mission, which prioritises services that simultaneously educate consumers through everyday language, provides greater financial security, and improves holistic financial health. Dashly customers never have to worry about their mortgage, because every aspect of their contract is automatically optimized with Dashly, ready to alert them the second something arises that requires their attention.

Fintech innovation should be customer-based. Reducing stress, enabling security, and helping people make informed financial decisions are all ways to bring about equity in the financial sector – and that is finance for good.

Wagestream

The month-long waiting between paychecks can be an excruciating one for employees – especially if there’s an emergency that requires a lump sum. Financial insecurity is a huge stressor, and measurably lowers employee productivity, focus, and retention.

That’s why Wagestream innovated and found a way to improve employee lives through a flexible paycheck.

The Wagestream system is implemented directly into whatever accounting system is already in place at a company. As an employee earns money throughout the month, it is calculated, tracked, and displayed in the Wagestream app. If a situation arises in which the employee either needs or wants to access their already-earned pay – a medical emergency, a school trip, a forgotten wedding anniversary dinner – they can request a transfer of funds, which are then streamed into their bank account.

Of course there is a built-in safety net; employees can only withdraw a certain percentage of their paycheck before payday, which guarantees there is still enough left for a lump sum to pay their bills at the start of the month.

Wagestream already has a proven record as an attractive benefit for employees. It is shown to increase employee retention by 10%, and productivity by an astonishing 20%. This is the direct result of eliminating the stress of financial insecurity throughout the month, instead allowing employees to see every pound earned as the work week progresses.

It’s a great example of how fintech innovation can be used to simplify and improve lives. No financial jargon, no complicated paperwork – just finances made for everyday people.

Finance For Good is ready to grow

FFG is ready and waiting to collaborate with more great fintech companies ready to revolutionise the UK’s financial market. By increasingly financial literacy and education and collectively pursuing a greater vision of holistic financial health for Brits – as a society and as individuals – we will steadily replace financial inequity with financial opportunity.