Introducing the next chapter of Workplace Finance

Speakers:

Peter Briffett - Co-Founder at Stream

Portman Wills - Co-Founder at Stream

Nick Rogers - Chief Product & Technology Officer at Stream

Emily Trant - Chief Impact Officer at Stream

Five key takeaways

1. W4 is the biggest product moment since Stream's first launch

The shift from access to education marks a genuine strategic evolution. W4 is not an incremental update, it is a new philosophy baked into the platform. Coach, Learn, and Portal together reframe Stream from a financial tool into a financial teacher, and Portal gives employer partners hard metrics to take to their boards for the first time.

2. Stream’s behavioural data is the most compelling argument for workplace finance.

Emily's research during the 2022 cost of living crisis showed that when financial stress eased, member behaviour changed in measurable ways - spending less, making better choices, and making better decisions. It is the most direct evidence linking financial wellbeing to business performance.

3. The Stream Foundation is a landmark moment

Launching a funded research charity represents Stream stepping beyond its commercial role. The 1% of profits commitment, combined with Emily's dual role, signals this is serious and long-term.

4. The gender savings finding changes the conversation

Women earning less, with lower literacy scores [7], saving 33% more frequently and building balances 27% higher [8], that is a counter-intuitive, headline-worthy finding. It directly challenges common assumptions about who saves and why, and it is a strong content hook for employer audiences in both the UK and US.

5. Government recognition opens a new chapter for employer engagement

Only three employers were named in the UK government's financial inclusion strategy. The National Coalition for Workplace Savings, chaired by the Co-op and convened by MaPS, Nest Insight, and TISA, launched in June 2026 and is free for employers to join at tisa.uk.com/savingscoalition. This is a genuine opportunity for employer partners to associate with national-level policy impact.

Summary

At FinWell '26, Stream's fourth annual gathering of employer partners, the company marked what felt like a genuine inflection point, not just a product update, but a shift in how Stream understands its own mission. Co-founders Peter and Portman grounded the room in the scale of the problem:

• 7.1 million low-income families going without essentials [1]
• 23% of UK adults blocked from financial products in the last 2 years [2]
• A fifth of UK adults (20%) were unable to correctly answer any of the Big Three financial literacy questions [3]

These are not new headlines, but the pressures show little sign of easing: the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts average income growth of just 0.3% a year for the rest of the decade, weaker than the past decade [13] and analysis by the Resolution Foundation suggests lower-income families could face a 137-year wait for their living standards to double at current rates of growth [14]. The employers in the room are on the front line of the response.

From there, the session traced Stream's journey from its origins in 2018. What started as a single pledge to eradicate payday loans has evolved into a full Workplace Finance platform spanning Pay, Workplace Savings, Workplace Loans, Find & Combine, and now financial education through Coach and Learn. Each product generation addressed a different layer of financial vulnerability:

• W1 tackled short-term shocks
• W2 helped members hit bigger milestones
• W3 looked toward long-term security
• W4, announced at the event, targets the layer that underpins all of the others: financial understanding

Along the way, Stream and its employer partners have been part of a broader shift that has seen the UK payday loan market shrink by over 90% since its 2013 peak [4], supported over a million workers to open a savings account for the first time [10], and saved £24 million in lower interest fees [5].

The centrepiece of the day was the W4 launch, presented by Chief Product and Technology Officer Nick Rogers. W4 is built on a single insight: access to financial tools is necessary but not sufficient. The data shows that even when people have the right products available, they do not always know how to use them to their full potential. W4 addresses this through three connected components. Coach is a personalised financial coach that starts with a short conversation, learns from every interaction, and proactively checks in on members as their goals evolve. Learn is a structured education centre with courses, quizzes, and practical tools that collapse the distance between understanding a topic and acting on it. Portal is the employer-facing layer purpose-built to translate member activity into the hard business metrics that CFOs and Boards respond to, including correlations with retention, absence, shift uptake, and movement along the financial wellbeing scale. W4 began rolling out the week of FinWell and is now live across the platform.

Chief Impact Officer Emily brought the human dimension. Her session opened with a reframe that set the tone for everything that followed: 8 in 10 UK employees are basic rate taxpayers [6], and yet the 2 in 10, those with higher incomes, greater financial confidence, and better access, make almost all the decisions about financial products, pay structures, and workplace benefits. The gap between those two groups is not just a policy problem. It shows up in the data every day.

Emily's most striking finding came from research conducted during the 2022 cost of living crisis. Stream members were earning significantly less than average, living through nearly 20% food price inflation [12], and yet they were spending less, not more. When financial stress eased and members had visibility and control over their money, their behaviour changed. They slowed down. They made better choices. It is the most direct evidence that access to financial tools does not just help people manage money, it frees up the mental space to think more clearly.

The 2025 impact figures backed this up at scale.

• £85 million was returned to members' pockets in a single year, after Stream's fees [5]
• 76% of surveyed members felt less financially stressed [5]
• 74% felt more hopeful about their financial futures [5]

These feelings translated into measurable business outcomes among surveyed employer partners:

• 14% reduction in absences [5]
• 30% reported increase in productivity [5]
• 18% boost in retention [5] (Self-reported, survey based)

Emily also shared findings from a new US financial literacy study across 5,600 Stream members, which found that only 15% could pass the Stanford Financial Literacy Test, with a significant gender gap, 11% of women versus 20% of men [7]. Yet despite lower earnings and lower literacy scores, women on the Stream platform were 33% more likely to save, and when they did, they built balances 27% higher than men [8]. Stream's early borrowers research points to financial shocks being a common experience within the first nine months, underlining the need to build savings resilience in parallel with loan repayment, not after it [11].

The session closed with two announcements that extended Stream's impact beyond its own platform. First, the UK government's November 2025 financial inclusion strategy named only three employers as case studies, Suez, Bupa, and Co-op, for their role in a workplace savings auto-enrolment pilot that lifted participation from 16% to nearly 70% [9]. That pilot, developed with Nest Insight, Harvard, and Yale, was subsequently scaled by Stream across its entire member base, producing the million savings accounts milestone.

The government launched the National Coalition for Workplace Savings in June 2026, chaired by the Co-op and convened by MaPS, Nest Insight, and TISA under the government's Financial Inclusion Strategy. Membership is free and open to employers at tisa.uk.com/savingscoalition. Second, and most significantly, Emily announced the launch of the Stream Foundation: a new public benefit research charity, funded at 1% of Stream's profits, focused on financial education and research into workers' lives in the UK and US.

Recommended next steps

To join the National Coalition for Workplace Savings, visit tisa.uk.com/savingscoalition. Membership is free. The coalition launched in June 2026, chaired by the Co-op and convened by MaPS, Nest Insight, and TISA.

Bottom Line

Stream arrived at FinWell '26 not just with a new product release but with a sharper sense of what it is for. The company started with a single pledge -to get rid of payday loans, and has spent seven years quietly building a platform capable of improving how millions of people think about and manage money across every stage of their working lives. W4 and the Stream Foundation together signal that the next chapter is less about adding products and more about deepening impact: making sure that access translates into understanding, and that understanding translates into better lives. The opportunity for employer partners is not just to offer a better benefit -- it is to be part of something that has government backing, research credibility, and a clear social mandate. That is a story worth telling.

Footnotes

1) Joseph Rowntree Foundation, "Cost of Living Tracker," Winter 2025. https://www.jrf.org.uk/cost-of-living/jrfs-cost-of-living-tracker-winter-2025

2) FCA, "Exploring Financial Exclusion," September 2024. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/external-research/exploring-financial-exclusion.pdf

3) abrdn, "Savings Ladder Index." (2024) https://www.aberdeenplc.com/docs?editionid=337aace2-fccf-4cb9-b91a-b19c011368f4

4) FCA, HCSTC lending data (FOI11798), December 2024. https://www.fca.org.uk/freedom-information/information-hcstc-data-december-2024. Decline calculated against CMA's 2013 peak estimate of ~10.2 million loans per year.

5) Stream internal data, May 2026. Results reflect outcomes among surveyed employer partners; sample sizes and methodology available on request. Calculated using APRs from historic credit data via Experian, Stream internal data, and assuming £3,000 loan and 3 year term

6) GOV.UK, "Income Tax Liabilities Statistics," 2022-23. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-tax-liabilities-statistics-tax-year-2022-to-2023-to-tax-year-2025-to-2026/bulletin-commentary

7) Stream internal data, May 2026. Based on analysis of 5,600 US Stream members surveyed on financial literacy using the Stanford Financial Literacy test.

8) Stream internal data, May 2026. Based on analysis of savings behaviour across Stream's member base, segmented by gender.

9) Nest Insight, "Easier to Save," March 2025. https://www.nestinsight.org.uk/major-report-into-workplace-savings-demonstrates-that-an-opt-out-approach-is-essential-and-could-make-a-significant-impact-on-the-uks-savings-gaps

10) Stream internal data, May 2026. Based on analysis of cumulative savings account activations across Stream's employer partner base since 2018.

11) Stream internal data, May 2026. Based on analysis of loan repayment and savings behaviour among early borrowers across Stream's member base.

12) ONS, "Food and energy price inflation, UK: 2023," 2023. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/foodandenergypriceinflationuk/2023

13) Resolution Foundation, "Living Standards Outlook 2026," February 2026. https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/living-standards-outlook-2026. Citing OBR forecast of 0.3% average income growth per year to end of decade.

14) Resolution Foundation, "Living Standards Outlook 2026," February 2026. Ibid. As reported by The Guardian, 10 February 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/feb/10/lower-income-families-living-standards

Legal Information

This content is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is intended for HR and People professionals.

Workplace Savings are provided through Stream Financial Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 915914). Registered in England and Wales. Company registration number: 12227891. Workplace Savings are held in a safeguarded account with our partner bank, Investec.  Workplace Loans are provided by Stream Financial Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 915914).

Find & Combine is provided by Stream Asset Management Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 936766), in partnership with Quai Investment Services Limited. Stream Asset Management Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Company registration number: 10970025.

Pay, Coach, Learn and Portal are non-regulated features and do not carry the same regulatory protections as the regulated products listed above.

Stream Platforms Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 11173225.

Registered office address: 7-9 Rathbone Street, London, W1T 1LY.