Project Nemo’s Impact on Adults with Learning Disabilities

Check in on headlines from the from Europe and the Middle East with Paulie Jean Harrison, features editor of the FinTech Times.

Good morning, Polly and thank you so much for joining us on this Friday.

So let's start off by talking about Project Nemo, not the fish, but a nonprofit initiative. has disability inclusion in the financial services sector.

Now they have revealed that adults with learning disabilities are being underserved by banks.

So tell us a little bit more about the research and do you think advances in digital payments have made things more challenging?

Happy Friday, and yes, Project Nemo are the initiative that are working to re-improve disability inclusion.

So they have found that despite efforts to crack down on financial exclusion and make banking more accessible to a wider population, it's actually been found that 61% of people with learning disabilities say that banks don't always do enough to meet their needs.

So as a result, around 32% don't even have a bank account in their own name due to the challenges around creating and operating one.

And the challenges of managing these bank accounts for everyday spending have resulted in 87% of adults with a learning disability and their supporters turning to informal workarounds.

So these workarounds are things like, you know, family members pretending to be the user while on the phone to the bank, or sharing bank card PIN numbers, things like that.

But these are really introducing a lot of unnecessary risks.

And though there are some dedicated FinTech support payment solutions.

They're not really particularly well known, so this report from Project Nemo is really shining a light on the fact that many of the recent advances in payments have actually made it significantly more difficult to make, receive, and manage payments for the 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability and their supporters.

So digital prepayments in particular are a concern because cash has that physical sense of value and control that digital methods struggle to replicate.

And so, you know, the increase in self-service terminals as well as the decrease in physical bank branches, as well as the growth of online shopping, have all reduced that human interaction and has made it really difficult for this community to act and, you know, manage their finances in a way that makes sense for them.

So Project Nimmo is really calling for change within the industry and is exploring a range of potential money management features in order to help aid safer spending for adults with learning disabilities.

So you know, their work is a hugely important step forward to ensuring that, you know, the 1.5 million people with a learning disability across the UK can make their financial choices safely and independently.

And this is something that I think, you know, we should all be aware of and really rallying behind to help improve that accessibility.

And finally, Pauly, digital bank Monzo is launching a new investment platform aimed at giving customers more options.

So tell us more about this launch.

Absolutely, so Monzo is launching a new exchange traded funds or ETF that it says are easy to understand, easy to use and selected based on what customers are interested in.

So this launch comes after Monzo found that many people struggle between wanting more choice but being overwhelmed by the investment options on the market.

So this has held back millions of Brits, over 56% who are yet to start their investment journeys, while 55% say they lack confidence in picking the right investment when presented with a list.

However, Monzo has also found a really clear appetite for investing their money.

With 63% of Brits revealing they'd be more likely to invest if offered a simpler way.

So in order to meet customer needs for more choice, Monzo's new experience, customers are allowing them allowing customers to choose from 11 different ETFs, including themed and uh geographic funds, and the digital bank has already started rolling out the build your own investment option as well to new investors, which will become available to all.

Customers in the coming weeks.

So this is really, you know, helping more um people improve accessibility to get the use of the financial uh solutions that they want to in this case, investing, and I think, you know, it's really great to see that there's gonna be more choice for people on the market to actually allow them to do the things that they wanna do, but safely and with all that knowledge there to make things accessible.

So really great move from Monzo.

OK, Pauly, as always, thank you so much for joining us and keeping us up to date with the latest headlines from Europe and the Middle East.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks, Ray.

See you next week.