This publication was produced as part of our Financial Resilience work, before Nest Insight became the Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest. For more information on the change, read more here.
When we talk about responsible lending, the focus is usually on avoiding harm: unaffordable debt, poor disclosure, or products that leave people worse off.
But our recent research, shared in our latest publication More than a loan (PDF), asks a different question:
What if borrowing wasn’t just about accessing credit, but a gateway to building financial resilience?
Why this matters now
Across the UK, financial resilience remains fragile. Many households are one unexpected cost away from difficulty – and the consequences go far beyond money.
Low financial resilience is closely linked to:
- worse physical and mental health,
- greater pressure on services like GPs,
- reduced capacity to stay in and succeed at work.
This is the context behind our work on joined-up borrowing and saving solutions, supported by JPMorganChase. Through our research, we’re trialling approaches that aim to use key financial moments, like taking out a loan, to also help people build even a small financial buffer.
What our event explored
Our event focussed on this key question:
Can we design borrowing journeys that also support saving – in a way that is fair, supportive, and achievable at scale?
To explore this, we brought together partners from across finance, fintech, regulation, policy and the impact community, and heard insights and perspectives from our panellists representing StepChange, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Fair4All Finance, Rooted Finance, Salary Finance, Stream and Cardiff and Vale Credit Union.
What emerged was a shared recognition:
We need to move beyond viewing borrowing and saving as separate financial behaviours and start designing for how they work together in people’s real lives.
Across different types of lenders with a range of approaches and propositions – from existing credit union models to employer-linked and fintech solutions – we heard that:
- many people are already saving alongside borrowing,
- the loan moment is a powerful and practical touchpoint to introduce savings habits,
- automated processes, defaults, and flexible mechanisms significantly shape behaviour – especially when friction is low and the benefits of saving are visible,
- even £40–£50 can meaningfully change what happens during a financial shock.
And importantly, this can shift outcomes:
- people who save alongside borrowing less likely to fall behind on bills over time,
- and more likely to cope with future shocks without needing to borrow again.
This challenges the traditional assumption that people must finish borrowing before they can start saving.
But, many households can, do, and want to save alongside borrowing.
Watch the panel discussions
Panel one: Research and practice – what’s the evidence for joined-up borrowing and saving solutions?
Panel two: Raising the standard for responsible lending
While on paper it can make sense to prioritise paying down debt first,
the discussion highlighted something important: Money management isn’t just a thing that people do on paper.
We heard that:
- having no savings can be more stressful than paying slightly more over time,
- and beginning to save can shift how people see themselves, from “someone with debt” to “someone who can save”.
In short, this is about resilience, peace of mind, and empowerment, not just one definition of what’s optimal.
Key risks were also central to the discussion:
- joined-up borrowing and saving solutions won’t be suitable for all customers or all products, and
- there’s a need for full transparency on costs and trade-offs for both consumers and lenders.
The shared view in the room was that joining up borrowing and saving builds on existing principles of responsible lending. That means:
- meeting people where they are, not where we think they should be,
- designing it with consumer protections in mind,
- and being clear about which features work well – or less well—for helping people build financial resilience and aiming to improve outcomes for borrowers who want to be savers.
The real design challenge
One of the most practical insights from the day was this: Starting to save isn’t always the hardest part – sustaining it once the loan ends is.
We heard that people often save during a loan but stop when it ends.
So, the challenge becomes: How do we support people beyond the loan moment?
Ideas discussed included:
- lower, more flexible “transition to save” amounts,
- clear communication on the ability to change savings amounts,
- defaults, less friction, one-click journeys, and payroll integration to ease the process.
What’s next
There is real momentum across the sector to explore these ideas further and what they could mean in practice.
Our mission is to find what really works in supporting low- and moderate-income households to be financially secure, both today and into retirement, and to drive transformational change in the system. As part of this, we’ll continue building the evidence on:
- what works and for whom,
- what it would take to scale these types of approaches across the system,
- and what other designs and opportunities might exist for building resilience.
If you’re interested in this work – or exploring other approaches – we’d love to hear from you:
hello@inclusivemoney.org.uk
With thanks to all who contributed to the discussion