Aldermore
Specialist lending and savings bank, Aldermore, launched its Report to Society 2022. It shows how it is making a positive societal impact, alongside its financial and operational goals, and includes recommendations for how it can play an even greater role in levelling up the financial services sector and society more widely.
Founded in 2009 during another economically challenging period, Aldermore’s ambition has always been to be a responsible business that makes a positive difference. It aims to open up banking to people and businesses who find it difficult to get finance and advice from the traditional financial sector while providing genuine value to all its stakeholders.
The Report to Society has been supported by the Purpose Coalition. The report is the first of its kind at Aldermore but one which will be repeated annually, as it refines its work and processes to better measure the bank’s impact. It considers Aldermore’s work against an innovative set of 14 Purpose Goals, known in the UK as Levelling Up Goals, which provide a way of generating benchmarks, targeting social impact more effectively and collaborating through the sharing of best practice.
Goal 7 Access to savings and credit With its CEO, Steven Cooper, as Commissioner for the Goal and involved in developing metrics for it, the bank brings its expertise, ambition and personal touch to help shape what levelling up really means for this issue. As the current cost of living pressures increase, it is focusing on financial resilience and on supporting first-time buyers in the housing market. It also advocates financial education from an early age, better support from employers for their workforce’s financial wellbeing, especially those in their first jobs, and better access to and communication about financial products;
Goal 5: Open recruitment Strategic hiring and fair recruitment processes which actively seek out diverse and disadvantaged people who may have thought the financial services sector was not for them, partnerships with local schools and an extensive apprenticeship scheme to facilitate diverse talent pathways into the bank;
Goal 9: Extending enterprise An approach which enables people to create their own jobs, often in communities where other opportunities are limited, and which prioritises strategic assistance for SMEs;
Goal 12: Building homes and sustainable communities Strategic financial support in areas which need it most to build safe communities with a good quality of life and the development of an environmental action plan, including a net zero strategy;
Goal 14: Achieve equality, through diversity and inclusion In a traditionally male-dominated industry, it is taking steps to drive gender and ethnic diversity, supporting its managers to develop more inclusive teams. Its active work on the Equality of Opportunity Commission has seen the beginning of a comprehensive campaign of socioeconomic and diversity measurement.