Minister for civil society Nick Hurd says he senses growing interest among banks in the commercial potential of offering social investment products to customers.

Hurd was careful not to overstate the likelihood of banks starting to offer social investment products to clients but said that a recent meeting with the BBA, the financial and banking services sector industry body, was attended by representatives of banks who seemed genuinely interested in the opportunities social investment offers, rather than the usual suspects.
 
In an address to the Action Planning Funding Roadshow conference in Westminster, an address which notably did not contain the phrase 'Big Society' except in reference to Big Society Capital, the minister said that "while interest might be slowly increasing from the retail banking sector, they’re not going to be the leaders [on social investment]".

He said that bank interest in social investment won’t be brought about by politicians cajoling, but rather by banks perceiving that it is something that their customers want.

Hurd said: “[Consumers] get plenty of opportunities to give away our money, but we get very few opportunities to invest for good. Why not think about social investment ISAs?”

He added: “Pension funds are the holy grail.” But he again advised against over-optimism about pension funds getting involved in social investment, saying that there are “very high levels of conservatism [among pension funds] at the moment.”