One of the most popular movies on Netflix at the moment is Bank of Dave, a (very) fictionalised account of how the Burnley Savings and Loan (BSAL) company was set up in that Lancashire town in 2011.
Despite what the movie tells us, BSAL is still not a registered bank in the UK. Instead local businessman Dave Fishwick and his team operate a peer to peer lending system. A person with money will loan it directly to a borrower through BSAL who do the administration and credit checks and take a margin for doing so. The lender gets a good rate on the investment, the borrower gets the money and BSAL operate a business where profits are donated back to the Burnley community, upwards of thirty million pounds since the BSAL opened its doors.
