MALG Conference 2025 Session Synopses
Also see the Programme and Speakers.
Keynote Speaker: Lee Healey, IncomeMAX (sponsored by Bristow & Sutor)
Evolving Together: The Cost of Life – and Why Your Work Matters
The storms keep coming. Costs rise, systems strain, and yet amidst it all, our community continues to help vulnerable people stand. In this keynote, Lee Healey invites us to look beyond statistics and see the real story – the cost of life, the courage it takes to live it – and why the work we do together really matters.
It’s a story of progress made, and the danger of forgetting how far we’ve come. It’s a call to action and a reminder to never stop believing in each other. Through awareness of what the cost of life really means for millions, we can keep building the kind, compassionate, and empowering systems that protect people through life’s continual storms.
Evolving together is always about change – but it’s also about remembering the shared humanness that has carried us safely this far.
Regulatory Keynote: ‘Fireside Chat’ with Alison Walters, Financial Conduct Authority
Synopsis coming soon.
Breakout 1a: The Changing Nature of Public Sector Debt Collection: Considering Ability to Pay
As public expectations and policy priorities evolve, so too must the approach to debt collection in the public sector. This session will explore how central and local government bodies are rethinking enforcement, ability to pay assessments, and vulnerability safeguards in the context of debts owed to the state.
With increasing recognition of the need to assess ability to pay fairly and consistently, this session will bring together experts from government, the debt advice sector, and enforcement to discuss emerging good practice, data sharing, and the balance between recovery and support.
Speakers will reflect on how ability to pay frameworks—such as the Standard Financial Statement (SFS)—are used (or not), how payment offers are handled, and what reforms may be needed to improve outcomes for financially vulnerable people while maintaining public revenue integrity.
Breakout 1b: Fintech Showcase: Innovative and Cutting-Edge Solutions for Supporting Financial Resilience and Financial Capability
From open banking to digital ID, from mobile wallets to improved online platforms; Fintech had led the way in the use of technology to drive, enhance and elevate financial resilience and capability as well as providing groundbreaking new ways to help advice agencies and the people they support. This session will provide an exciting opportunity for participants to hear from leading Fintech companies, to learn, engage and probe their new and exceptional innovations which drive financial inclusion and aim to make financial processes more efficient, accessible and user-friendly.
MALG Podcast LIVE: Liz Barclay, Institute of Directors
Synopsis coming soon.
Breakout 2a: Financial Inclusion: Rebuilding Creditworthiness after Economic Abuse and other Financial Difficulties
Synopsis coming soon.
Breakout 2b: MALG Members Friday Forum LIVE: The Future of Consumer Protection (sponsored by PRA Group)
Synopsis coming soon.
Better Together: Financial Capability in the ‘Finfluencer’ Age
Synopsis coming soon.