Salad Money set to make greater social impact
Salad Money, the social enterprise providing short-term loans to NHS workers, has taken another major step towards achieving its mission of solving the high-cost credit problem amongst this vital group of UK key workers.
A £2.5m finance facility from Shawbrook Bank will support the sustainable growth of Salad Money as it partners with more NHS Trusts and helps NHS workers excluded from mainstream credit.
Founded by Alan Campbell after identifying a severe lack of affordable credit for those with impaired credit scores, Salad Money now provides a fast, fair and affordable alternative to the 1.5m NHS workers in the UK today.
As well as lending between £500 and £1,000 to creditworthy borrowers – repaid through monthly salary deduction or Direct Debit – free financial education is offered to all applicants to help improve money management skills for the future. 97% of customers rate the service ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot.
Phillip Hyett, finance director at Salad Money, says: “We’re proud to have helped over 5,000 NHS workers borrow affordably since we launched – but we know there are many tens of thousands more who still rely on high-cost credit to get by. The funding from Shawbrook will enable us to scale at a time when the need for affordable credit is only growing.”
With over 90% of Salad Money customers now applying for loans via mobile, with rapid decisions made using Open Banking data, the organisation is able to provide small loans to address urgent needs.
Phillip adds: “The use of Open Banking data and technology, as well as reliable funding from our own lenders, enables us to make fast and fair credit decisions. The team at Shawbrook instantly recognised the importance of our mission and quality of the proposition we’ve built here.”
Paul Tagg, senior director at Shawbrook Bank says: “Phillip and the team at Salad Money are clearly driven by a fantastic purpose. To deliver on that purpose for the long term also means having a strong foundation in place, which they’ve absolutely got with their proposition, technology and a growing network of NHS Trusts. With this new funding facility in place, I’m very proud that Shawbrook will now play a small part in delivering on that purpose of providing affordable credit, as well as financial education, to those NHS workers that need it.”
