People helping people: Great Western Credit Union, the financial co-operative supporting women at work

Financial stress for any of us doesn't tend to clock off when the working day starts.

And for women, who are disproportionately likely to be primary caregivers, single parents, or navigating interrupted career paths, the gap in financial confidence and financial freedom is sharper still.

These are not abstracts.

In the UK, men hold an estimated 82% more in savings than women. By retirement, the average woman's pension pot is roughly half the size of a man's. The gender pay gap, lower rates of auto-enrolment, and years of caregiving that quietly erode earning power combine to make this not a quirk of individual circumstance, but a structural reality.

This stress shows up in distraction at a desk on a Monday morning, in the employee who cannot take on more responsibility because the cost of doing so doesn't add up. In the quiet financial coercion that, in some households, makes independent saving not a choice but an impossibility.

Great Western Credit Union was built to change exactly that.

As our headline sponsor of the Women in Business Charter Impact Event on 25 June at Bristol City Hall, it is a partnership that feels genuinely fitting. Because what Great Western Credit Union does, quietly and practically and at scale across the West of England, is the kind of work the Charter exists to amplify.

A really simple bank

James Berry has spent the better part of two decades leading Great Western Credit Union, having arrived in Bristol via banking and stayed, as so many do, for good.

James Berry, GWCU CEO

"You need to test it yourself to make sure it works.”

His route in was through volunteering at one of the city's small community credit unions while still working in financial services, and the pull of the model, its clarity of purpose, its fundamental difference from everything else in the sector, turned out to be decisive.

Ask him to explain what a credit union is and he does what good communicators do, he starts with the thing everyone already understands.

"Banks work on the basis that some people have money and other people need money," he says. 

"They take savings from the people who have it and lend it to the people who need it. The interest paid by borrowers goes back to savers, minus the bit in the middle that covers running costs. 

“A credit union does the same thing, but with one crucial difference. Everybody involved is a member. They're all part-owners of their own bank. There are no external shareholders taking a cut. All the money made is used for the benefit of the members as a whole."

Great Western Credit Union grew out of five community credit unions set up across Bristol in the mid-1990s, using government regeneration funding, as a direct response to research showing that in some areas almost as much money was flowing back out of communities in high-cost loan repayments as was coming in through benefits. 

Four of those original organisations eventually merged; since then, a further four have joined. Today the credit union covers a geography across the West of England stretching from the Severn to the sea, serving 20,000 members and managing 16 million pounds in assets.

They want to reach 40,000 to 50,000 people. Not for growth's sake, but because the need is there.

The gender lens

The Money@Work programme sits at the heart of Great Western Credit Union's employer offering, and it is where the most direct connection to women's financial wellbeing becomes visible.

The mechanics are simple. Employees save and repay loans directly from their salary, before the money reaches their bank account. The deduction happens automatically. There is no willpower required, no month-end calculation, no transfer to remember. For many people, this is the first time they have ever saved consistently.

But Berry is careful to name what the statistics tend to obscure. On average, women carry less in savings. Career interruptions, the gender pay gap, and the disproportionate weight of unpaid caring responsibilities all compound over time. Financial planning gets pushed down the list when you are managing on less and doing more.

And then there is the harder thing to say.

"Being able to save direct from pay, before the money goes into a joint bank account, can be the only way for somebody to build their own financial security.”

Berry says it matter-of-factly. In some households where financial coercion is present, the Money@Work route is not just a convenience. It is a way to build independent savings that would otherwise be inaccessible. Great Western Credit Union knows this has happened. They don’t advertise it, they simply make it possible.

There are other products shaped by the same thinking. The Family Loan allows parents, mostly mothers, who lack a credit file or have a difficult credit history, to access a loan by directing their child benefit through the credit union.

Members can move it at any time. But it opens a door that is otherwise closed. A portion always goes into savings, because even a small amount, Berry says, matters psychologically. It changes the story someone tells themselves about what is possible.

Designing for real life

Product design at Great Western Credit Union follows a regulatory framework called Consumer Duty. But Berry describes the underlying approach in more practical terms: start with the problem, not the product.

For years, the credit union has allowed members to repay weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, or monthly. Banks do not do this broadly speaking, because the assumption is that everyone is paid monthly. 

That assumption is wrong. Many people on weekly wages or fortnightly benefits budget on that cycle, and a product that ignores this creates friction where it should create support.

"Little things like that," Berry says. "Just asking where the problems are, and whether there's something we can do about them within our resources."

The employer opportunity

The Money@Work programme is free for employers to offer and light on administration. For organisations already thinking seriously about employee wellbeing, it sits naturally alongside existing benefits. For those just beginning that conversation, Berry suggests it is a strong place to start.

"It's about money," he says simply. "And money helps make a lot of other things possible."

Employer partners range from Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol to smaller organisations where, Berry notes, the conversations tend to be more personal and take-up is often higher. 

What matters most is not scale but intention: genuine buy-in from the right level, from people who see financial wellbeing not as a compliance exercise but as part of what it means to look after their people and to build their financial resilience. .

The business case is well-evidenced. Employees with greater financial resilience are better able to focus and more likely to show up fully to their work. "People who are able to build savings, who have access to affordable credit, are more likely to turn up to work in a positive state of mind," Berry says. "That's not anecdotal – it’s the evidence."

Jacci Marcus, head of growth said: “I've seen in research that women can be up to 10 percentage points more likely than men to feel loyal to employers who offer inclusive, family-friendly policies.

“ In my experience, often leading large teams, the most productive were very capable women who just needed extra support - showing how much impact the right workplace benefits can have.”

Walking the walk

Great Western Credit Union has around 31 members of staff, the majority women. Enhanced maternity leave, income protection insurance, and life insurance paid for by the organisation are all part of the package. The credit union's first employee benefit was its own Money@Work scheme.

The GWCU team serve many counties in the South West with their HQ in St Paul’s, Bristol

"You need to test it yourself to make sure it works," Berry says.

There is something in that line that captures a broader quality of how the organisation operates. 

The culture is community-focused, the model is genuinely mutual. The values are not something that live in a document; they live in the product design, in the payment frequencies, in the Family Loan, in the way the service was built to meet people where they are.

"We're here to make people and communities better off.”

The Charter's Impact Event on 25 June is a moment to bring together the employers and leaders who understand that financial wellbeing is not a peripheral concern. It is part of the infrastructure of an inclusive workplace. 

Great Western Credit Union, as headline sponsor, will be in the room making that case, and backing it with practical insights for employers to take up by the end of the day.

Join us at the Bristol Women in Business Charter Impact Event, 25 June 2026, Bristol City Hall - tickets here.

Financial stability can help women thrive. Find out more about Money@Work here.