B2B marketing communications consultancy has launched a new podcast for its long-standing client Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG). MALG’s aim is ‘working together to improve the lives of people in debt’ and Engage Comms came up with the idea of a podcast to help take this to the next level by using it as an additional means of facilitating important conversations with key influencers from across the debt landscape.

The MALG Podcast is planned, produced, co-hosted, edited and marketed by Engage Comms as part of its full-service offering to MALG to provide inspiring insights into how collaboration and working smarter can overcome the barriers to a fairer, better system for those in financial difficulty.

The first episode of the MALG Podcast, officially launching at the MALG Conference in Leeds on 7 November 2024, is entitled ‘A once in 25 years opportunity to revolutionise vulnerable consumer data sharing’. In it, MALG CEO Bob Winnington sits down with Dr Chris Fitch; Money Advice Trust’s Vulnerability Lead and Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre.

As a prolific and highly engaging speaker and host of the ‘Vulnerability Matters’ podcast, Chris is one of if not the leading voice on fair treatment of vulnerable customers by financial services, utilities, telecoms and related firms in the UK and beyond. A researcher by trade, he delves deep into issues facing vulnerable customers using a ‘lived experience’ approach to come up with practical solutions that work.

Chris’ latest passion project is the Government’s ‘Share Once Support Register’ which will mean vulnerable customers only need to register with energy, telecoms and water companies once to access extra help.

On the MALG Podcast, Bob has the opportunity to ask Chris what his secret is when it comes to galvanising people and organisations to get on board with his collaborative projects and how he manages to communicate his messages so well. They discuss the 10 principles for designing consumer data sharing programmes which a group of independent experts have come up with to inform the new Share Once Support Register, and Bob gets Chris’ take on what the new Government needs to do to ensure that vulnerable customers are finally offered the service they deserve.

Bob Winnington, CEO of Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG), says:

“Since I joined MALG in 2016, the team and I have been working hard to push boundaries when it comes to ‘working together to improve the lives of people in debt’. As the membership has rapidly grown and diversified we’ve had to constantly come up with new ways to keep members engaged and the podcast was an obvious next step for us. We’re excited to see where we can take it and offer both our members and wider stakeholders new opportunities to access insight and conversations that will spark collaborative action.”

Dr Chris Fitch added:

“As a long-time MALG supporter, it is great to be the first guest on the new podcast. Given MALG’s reach and upcoming guest-list, it will definitely become a ‘monthly must listen’ for me and others right across the debt landscape. And with Bob as host, there’s always a tricky question or two to keep guests very much on their toes”.

Listen to the MALG Podcast HERE or wherever you get your podcasts.