Over a hundred guests from the financial services sector gathered to hear from leading guest speakers including Fiona Hoyle, Head of Consumer Finance at the FLA, and Professor Trevor Williams, economist and former Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank. Although the future is undoubtedly going to be a turbulent time for all industries, the finance experts shared their thoughts on potential opportunities which businesses could benefit from in the coming months.

Although Open Banking officially came into force in January 2018 there has been a slow uptake among consumers. Guest speakers at the event took part in an Open Banking panel where they discussed whether this was down to a lack of awareness, reluctance to share data because of security concerns or something else. The audience was also polled for their opinion and the results mirrored that of the panellists with 58% believing that lack of awareness played a significant role.

Also at the event Equiniti Credit Services launched their latest consumer research report, the sixth in an ongoing series, investigating consumer attitudes towards unsecured credit in 2018. This year’s report focused on how demand, data and the user experience are reshaping the credit market. Highlights from the report include the positive news that consumer confidence in the credit market is continuing to grow which is creating opportunities for lenders.