Salford Money Line

Salford Money Line is just one of 13 successful and sustained ‘Community Banks’, operating across the whole UK. It has been developed by ordinary people, with support from their local university, to meet real local needs, as conventional banks ‘flee from poverty’. The university gave its local community the support, confidence and ability to develop such micro finance organisations for themselves. And it has driven the loan sharks away from poor areas and gives local people a chance to live normal economic lives, creating socially inclusive wealth creation.

The community developed, and led, ‘community banks’ have collectively over £20 million on reserve for ‘on-lending’ – the first in February 2001 in Portsmouth and the second in Salford. Salford Money Line was launched on 1st December and now has over £1.8 million on reserve to help needy individuals and enterprises. This CRT goes beyond the activities of Banks and Credit Unions by supplying credit to those unable to save, owner-occupiers unable to realise their assets, start-up businesses and other excluded by mainstream financial services.

The figure left visually depicts Low Income Persons access to resources with Mainstream Finance excluded (bottom right) with the door open to High Income Earners (top right).

Academic evaluators undertook summative evaluation in order to be able to give full recommendations to the British Government as to how it might be able to develop the idea on a national basis with some confidence. Because of the early success of the project, the CRT team are presently working up the next phase of this important ‘community banking’. Five city-based and one rural ‘bank’ are also presently being considered.

One of the ‘banks’ – East Lancs MoneyLine - has become even more deeply involved in future ‘community bank’ developments for themselves. Working with researchers from Salford University, they have spawned several banks of their own, even opening a branch in Scotland.

As well as assisting individuals with low cost loans to improve lives, the CRTs will be a useful new tool to help various agencies and ultimately society, to tackle poverty and those that prey on the financially weakest in our town and cities. For more details of the theory behind this development please read, Karl Dayson, Paterson, Bob, James A Powell, (1999),Investing in People and Places, University of Salford.

So far there have been almost £2 million worth of loans made by the thirteen ‘community bank’, with a very small number of defaulters to date. The University support has been central to the development of these and future CRTs by working to facilitate the plans and potential of a number of Private, Public and Third Sector (Housing Association) partners and enabling the contacts to develop   in and with the Communities that CRTs will serve. Continuous monitoring and formative evaluation by university researchers throughout the development is enabling the development to maximise its full potential.

Academic evaluators undertook summative evaluation in order to be able to give full recommendations to the British Government as to how it might be able to develop the idea on a national basis with some confidence. Because of the early success of the project, the CRT team are presently working up the next phase of this important ‘community banking’. Five city-based and one rural ‘bank’ are also presently being considered.

One of the ‘banks’ – East Lancs MoneyLine - has become even more deeply involved in future ‘community bank’ developments for themselves. Working with researchers from Salford University, they have spawned several banks of their own, even opening a branch in Scotland.

As well as assisting individuals with low cost loans to improve lives, the CRTs will be a useful new tool to help various agencies and ultimately society, to tackle poverty and those that prey on the financially weakest in our town and cities. For more details of the theory behind this development please read, Karl Dayson, Paterson, Bob, James A Powell, (1999),Investing in People and Places, University of Salford.