For Financial Services
Taking support for economic abuse further.
In the UK, financial services firms have introduced significant programmes to support those experiencing Economic Abuse.
Working with specialist organisations such as Surviving Economic Abuse, financial services firms have brought in expert knowledge that has helped shape policies, processes and support for customers experiencing Economic Abuse. Together, this reflects a broader commitment to making support more accessible, informed and responsive to the realities of Economic Abuse.
Harbour Lights Community shares that commitment.
We focus on helping people understand what they are experiencing, identify information and support that may be relevant to their circumstances, and make informed decisions about what to do next. Our resources bring together evidence, practical information and specialist sources so that people have clearer information to work with as they navigate the consequences of Economic Abuse.
What The Research Shows
The sector has already invested and improved its response, yet a few challenges remain.
Financial services firms have made real progress in strengthening the support available to customers experiencing Economic Abuse. Yet some of this support isn’t reaching the people who need it most. Research shows that many women experiencing Economic Abuse never seek support at all, and fewer still turn to a bank or building society when they do.520
Where The Gap Remains
Four challenges sit between your existing support and the women it is designed to reach.
Behind those figures are several different issues. Four are particularly relevant to the support Harbour Lights can provide.
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They may not recognise that what is happening is Economic Abuse.
SEA found that 51% of women who experienced Economic Abuse identified their experience as definitely or probably Economic Abuse. Where a partner or ex-partner had restricted bank account access, only 36% identified it as definitely Economic Abuse, compared with 70% who recognised the behaviour as abuse when described as happening to a friend.520
StepChange’s 2026 coerced-debt research found 49% did not immediately recognise the behaviour as wrong. Delayed recognition could delay or prevent help-seeking, allowing financial or emotional consequences to develop before seeking support.580
Commercial implicationA customer can therefore be experiencing Economic Abuse without recognising it as something to raise with their bank.
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They may recognise the abuse but not feel able to tell their bank.
Recognition does not necessarily lead to disclosure. StepChange found that 70% of people with coerced debts did not seek help with those debts. Among those who did not seek support, 45% cited shame or embarrassment and 35% feared how someone else, such as a partner or family member, might react if they sought help. SEA’s research also identifies fear of not being believed and concern that a financial services firm may not understand or act as barriers to disclosure.578
Commercial implicationA customer may understand that they are experiencing Economic Abuse but still never tell their bank, meaning the bank may not know that its specialist support is relevant to them.
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They may have too many other problems demanding their attention.
Feeling overwhelmed is itself a documented barrier to seeking help. SEA found that 23% of women who did not seek support for Economic Abuse said they felt overwhelmed; among women aged 18–24, this rose to 43%.520
Further SEA research describes survivors simultaneously dealing with housing, money, income, food, children’s schooling and relocation while also navigating financial services processes, with this complexity described as becoming a deterrent.578
Commercial implicationEven when bank support could help, dealing with the Economic Abuse may be competing with several other urgent problems and approaching the bank may not happen.
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They may not know that their bank can help with Economic Abuse.
A customer can be dealing with their bank without knowing that the bank may be able to help with the abuse itself. SEA’s 2025 research identified lack of awareness that Economic Abuse could be disclosed to a financial services firm as the biggest barrier to disclosure. One survivor had visited her bank to change her PIN and other details but did not disclose the abuse; she told researchers she probably would have done so had she known the bank was able to help.578
Commercial implicationThe customer may already be presenting the bank with a financial consequence of the abuse without recognising that the bank’s economic-abuse support could also be relevant to what is happening.
Where We Can Help
Harbour Lights Community can help to address those challenges.
01Recognition
Help customers notice the patterns, so recognition is not what stands between them and your support.
Harbour Lights Community can help customers see whether individual experiences form part of a wider pattern of Economic Abuse, helping them build a clearer picture of what is happening.
That recognition matters. SEA found that many women who had experienced Economic Abuse did not identify their own experiences as abuse.520 Research into domestic abuse also shows that difficulty recognising or naming abuse can itself be a barrier to disclosure.581
Harbour Lights addresses this through two complementary resources. Constellation helps customers identify patterns in what they are experiencing, while the Economic Abuse Guide helps them understand what those patterns may mean. Together, they can help customers build a clearer understanding of whether what they are experiencing may be Economic Abuse.
Identify the pattern.
Constellation helps customers identify whether the behaviours they are experiencing form part of a pattern of abuse. It shows how those behaviours connect and surfaces information relevant to the pattern identified.
Explore Constellation
Understand what the pattern may mean.
The Economic Abuse Guide explains the tactics and actions associated with Economic Abuse, the impacts they can have, and options for navigating those behaviours where it is safe to do so.
Explore the Economic Abuse Guide02Disclosure
Give customers relevant information privately, so shame is less likely to prevent disclosure.
Recognising Economic Abuse does not necessarily mean a customer will feel able to tell their bank. SEA research identifies shame, embarrassment, fear of not being believed and not knowing that a financial services firm can help as barriers to disclosure.578
Broader research into sensitive and stigmatised experiences also suggests that greater knowledge can support help-seeking and willingness to disclose, although information alone does not guarantee that either will happen.582
Giving customers a private way to understand what they are experiencing may therefore help create the conditions in which disclosure becomes more possible.
Harbour Lights can make information available before disclosure is required, helping customers better understand what they are experiencing, see what information and support may be relevant, and gain a clearer sense of the issues they may want to discuss if they decide to make contact.
For the bank, this creates an additional opportunity to reach customers who may otherwise never disclose the abuse, and connect them with the specialist support already in place.
Explore privately.
The Knowledge Centre gives customers access to Harbour Lights Community guidance, practical information and sources of support without requiring them to disclose abuse first.
Explore the Knowledge Centre
Clarify what may be worth discussing.
Constellation can be used privately before a customer contacts their bank. By selecting behaviours they recognise, customers can see whether those experiences may form part of a wider pattern and find information relevant to what has been identified.
This can help them build a clearer picture of what is happening and of the issues they may want to raise if they later choose to speak to the bank.
Explore Constellation03Competing Demands
Bring together the information customers need, so there is less to find and piece together.
Economic Abuse can create concurrent urgent problems. SEA’s 2025 national research found that victim-survivors experienced consequences including severe financial difficulty, unmanageable debt, homelessness and having to work multiple jobs to meet essential costs.520
SEA’s Survivors’ Needs research also describes women managing housing, money, income, food, children’s schooling and relocation alongside the abuse itself. Professionals interviewed for that research described how complex processes become harder to navigate when someone is already juggling multiple urgent priorities.578
When several problems compete for attention, working out which information is relevant becomes another demand in itself.
Harbour Lights Community helps customers see how these problems connect, surfaces the information relevant to their situation, and points them towards specialist support where it’s needed.
For the bank, this gives the customer somewhere to continue beyond the banking interaction, without the bank needing to become the source for information outside its own role.
Understand the issues.
The Guides bring together research, professional guidance and practical information on specific forms and patterns of abuse, helping customers understand the problems affecting them and how those problems may connect.
Explore the Guides
Turn information into next steps.
Checklists bring together practical points to consider around a particular situation or task, giving customers information they can work through and return to at their own pace.
Explore the Checklists
Find specialist support.
The Directories bring together researched organisations, services and programmes across different areas of need, helping customers identify specialist support relevant to their circumstances.
Explore the Directories04Beyond Banking
Give customers a clear route to information when their needs extend beyond banking.
The effects of economic abuse often reach well beyond a customer’s financial products. SEA’s national research documents consequences including homelessness and disruption to employment, as well as abuse involving family courts and child maintenance.520
Economic abuse is often one part of a wider pattern of post-separation abuse, rather than something a customer experiences in isolation. A major concept analysis identifies economic abuse alongside legal abuse, threats and endangerment involving children, isolation and discrediting, and harassment and stalking, describing post-separation abuse as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that requires responses across different systems.506 Where a customer is experiencing several of these forms together, the range of issues they’re facing can be wider still.
For an individual customer, this can mean facing several of these issues at once, some of which will fall outside what the bank can address directly.
Harbour Lights Community brings together information across these wider issues, with routes to more detailed guidance and appropriate specialist support where needed.
For the bank, this means the banking response can stay focused on the financial products, processes and support within its role, while the customer’s wider needs still get met elsewhere.
Find what is relevant to your circumstances.
Lumina helps customers identify the Harbour Lights Community information most relevant to the issues affecting their individual circumstances, giving them a clearer route into the wider support available.
Explore Lumina
Continue into wider information and support.
The Knowledge Centre brings together Guides, Directories, Checklists, Articles and supporting research across the wider issues a customer may need to understand or address.
Explore the Knowledge Centre
06 Built Around Your Customer Pathway
Use the Harbour Lights resources that add value to what you already provide.
Every financial services organisation will already have a different combination of vulnerability arrangements, specialist teams, economic-abuse processes, staff training, external partnerships and referral pathways.
Harbour Lights can work with you to understand what is already in place and where additional information for women could be useful.
A partnership might involve one resource or a combination.
What You Already Provide
- Banking expertise
- Customer-support processes
- Vulnerability pathways
- Specialist teams
- SEA and other specialist partnerships
- Training
- Referral arrangements
What Harbour Lights Can Add
- Economic Abuse Guide
- Lumina
- Constellation
- Wider Guide Range
- Reference Library
- Practical Tools & Checklists
- Bespoke resources
An Approach Built Around Your Organisation
The right information, made available in the way that fits your existing customer support.
Financial services organisations can also fund customer access to Harbour Lights resources so that women can use them without charge. Where appropriate, resources can be made available through existing customer information without requiring a formal disclosure of abuse to be the only route to access.
Let’s Work Together
Where could additional information be useful for the women you support?
- You may want to make information about Economic Abuse available without requiring disclosure first.
- You may want to give customers something substantive they can use after a banking interaction.
- You may want to provide practical tools around particular financial problems.
- Or you may want to explore how Lumina could support women whose circumstances extend beyond one area of abuse.
Tell us what you already provide and what you would like women to have access to.
We can explore which Harbour Lights resources – or combination of resources – could sit alongside the support already in place.
Talk to Harbour Lights Community