News 31 March 2010

As part of the National Strategy for Financial Capability, the FSA has enlisted 20 Regional Managers (RMs) to engage and build relationships with organisations across the UK to integrate our financial capability projects into the community.

• The RMs operate at local, regional and national levels, performing a significant ambassadorial role and promoting almost all of the national strategy projects, including our money guidance service. This is how it works:
• RMs were originally responsible for implementing our Workplace programme and this has remained the core activity, engaging with employers to deliver Making the Most of Your Money seminars and booklets to employees across the country. Working to the specific needs of each employer, the programme can be delivered as a standalone offering or incorporated into an induction programme or learn-at-work event; more recently, a version of the programme has been developed to address redundancy, supported by our new Redundancy Handbook.
• Distribution of the Parents’ Guide to Money is boosted through RMs maintaining the established relationships with key personnel at NHS Trusts and Children’s Centres, updating them on the new guide last year and auditing their distribution requirements.
• The ambassadorial role sees them manage a large network of contacts and act as the ‘face’ of the national strategy, drawing on built relationships to generate leads for the strategy projects. A typical network might include key stakeholders in local government, central government departments, Regional Development Agencies, Scottish Enterprise, Invest Northern Ireland, Welsh Assembly Government, registered social landlords, trade unions, third sector organisations and employers. Many of these are represented at local and regional partnership meetings, such as Financial Capability and Financial Inclusion forums, which provide RMs with an important conduit to maintain the profile of their work.
• During the money guidance pathfinder, we were able to use existing RM relationships in the North East and North West of England to extend the service across the region. And national roll-out will draw upon the local knowledge and relationships of RMs across the UK. Key elements of this work are to raise awareness of the Moneymadeclear brand and services, and to forge local partnerships to generate referrals to the service.
• Using existing and new contacts, we will be able to offer employers in-house Moneymadeclear seminars, increasing the accessibility for employees. Our RMs links with housing providers, credit unions, third sector and advice organisations will also ease accessibility for more vulnerable groups and those most in need of the service.

As the work of the national strategy has developed, so indeed has the scope of the RM’s role, and recently a team of Relationship Managers was appointed to support them in the field. RMs will work alongside the Relationship Managers as the latter maintain distribution channels for some of the more mature national strategy products, such as the Parents’ Guide to Money, whilst also inheriting key employer and stakeholder relationships. This will enable the RMs to focus their activities on generating new opportunities and maximising ambassadorial relationships as we move through what will certainly be an exciting and challenging year with the transfer to CFEB and the national roll-out of money guidance.

For further information on the Regional Manager network in the South, contact Paul Frost on [email protected], for Central regions contact Stuart Bailey on [email protected] and for North, contact [email protected].