Welcome to episode eight of The Shape of Money, a podcast by ieDigital. In today’s show, we discuss open banking with Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of cloud-based accounting software FreeAgent. I invited Ed Molyneux onto the show in light of recent changes to how FreeAgent uses open banking. We discuss keeping up with legislation, bank feeds, challenger banks and small business banking.
Steph Barker joins us later in the episode to regale us with stories of great bakes and great cakes for our recent Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off.
The Shape of Money, episode 08 show notes
00:35 Our conversation begins.
01:16 An introduction to Money and Mental Health, a research charity backed by Martin Lewis. We discuss startling statistics about the link between mental health issues and managing your finances.
02:49 People on lower incomes are more often affected by mental health issues. The ways mental health problems can affect our finances and financial prospects are quite varied.
04:49 Merlyn Holkar says one way to tackle mental health problems from customer-centric point of view is to adopt a universal design approach.
05:50 The stigma associated with mental health often prevents people asking for help.
06:44 How do we help people better manage their finances when we recognise symptoms?
07:30 Are financial services companies doing enough to help?
09:31 We discuss Monzo and its ‘gambling block’ – a feature designed to add friction to the process of funding a gambling habit.
11:39 What role do we think technology will play in tackling the issue of mental health?
12:14 We discuss how much we think a self-serve approach will work, whereby vulnerable customers in debt to their energy company, for instance, are encouraged to engage with their debt and manage it themselves through an app or browser.