State of play: accessibility in fintech
Each month, Philip Benton, Principal Fintech Analyst at Omdia, explores a new topic and assesses the “state of play”, providing an analysis and understanding of the market landscape.

It’s clear that accessibility by design is a positive thing in terms of the social, business and economic benefits
I’m kicking off the year with a topic that is long overdue discussion, both in my column and the wider fintech industry, as I investigate the state of play of accessibility in fintech.
The forgotten letter in ESG
ESG is a topic that is widely covered and often falls under the umbrella of ‘sustainability’, which many assume is the S in ESG. But the S actually stands for ‘social’, and this encompasses several issues including human rights, ethics and inequality. But for this column, I want to focus on the social issue of accessibility in fintech.
I must admit that until recently, I was largely naïve to the challenges faced by so many in accessing and using basic financial services. So, when I first heard about Project Nemo, it seemed like I was the ideal target audience. Project Nemo is a 12-month disability inclusion campaign with a goal to set fintech as a sector leader in inclusion, delivering a lasting legacy of change. I attended Fintech Week London last year where project lead Joanne Dewar outlined the vision for the campaign: “The focus is about ‘minding the gap’. A lot of people are simply unaware,” she said in her speech.
Dewar explained that it’s not just about adapting products for people with disabilities, but ensuring they are designed with inclusivity built-in from the outset. “Inside and outside of fintech, it should be accessible by default,” she said.
The curb-cut effect
The mindset of ‘accessible by default’ can be seen in the concept known as the curb-cut effect. This refers to how features designed for one group end up benefitting society as a whole. The name comes from physical curb cuts on pavements that were initially installed to make cities more accessible for people with disabilities. However, it quickly became clear that they were useful for so many others—parents with buggies, cyclists, delivery workers, and even tourists with luggage.
The curb-cut effect applies in more scenarios than you might realise. Subtitles are a great example. You might assume that they are solely used by those who are hard of hearing, but 63% of Netflix programmes are watched with the subtitles on. This might be because you are watching a foreign language TV show but prefer watching with subtitles than listening to a dub, or you find it easier to follow complex plots via subtitles, or you just simply prefer having the words on screen to read along. The point is that ‘accessible by default’ benefits everyone.
The incoming EU Accessibility Act will force change
It is clear that inclusivity and accessibility by design is a positive thing in terms of the social, business and economic benefits – the collective spending power of disabled people is reported to be £274 billion in the UK, known as the ‘Purple Pound’ – but soon change will be regulatory-driven with the impending EU Accessibility Act (EAA). Jas Shah did a fantastic job of outlining all the implications in detail in a recent blog post on the topic, and I wanted to echo his point that although the UK is not part of the EU so doesn’t have to abide to the legislation, the precedence is that UK lawmakers typically follow anyway.
The EAA, which will become fully effective in June 2025, is designed to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to a wide range of everyday products and services. It mandates that businesses and service providers adhere to common accessibility requirements, facilitating a more inclusive environment. The act will make life easier for over 87 million people – almost one in five Europeans – who have disabilities, including many older people, and for those who have a temporary impairment.
That means products and services launched after 28 June 2025 are expected to comply with the new law, and existing products that undergo a significant overhaul, such as an interface redesign, are also expected to comply.
Awareness is growing, but more needs to be done
Some firms in the fintech sector have acted already. For example, Banca Sella became the first bank in Italy and Europe to adopt TQ Braille, an innovative tactile identification tool developed by the Italy-based company Arti Grafiche Parini. This technology, which incorporates a QR code, enhances accessibility for blind and visually impaired individuals by providing them with information about the bank’s products, services and initiatives.
There are other initiatives from banks that have recently made efforts to better support deaf or hard of hearing customers. For example, Monzo has partnered with SignLive, an online interpreting service for British Sign Language (BSL), to improve inclusivity for users who rely on BSL, enabling them to communicate with the bank’s customer support team through a fully accredited interpreter in real-time.
Spanish bank CaixaBank is piloting a new programme, dubbed SVisual, which enables its customers to receive information on financial services through a system of simultaneous video interpreting in sign language delivered by a qualified interpreter. Dutch neobank bunq has also upgraded its AI assistant, Finn, to introduce real-time speech-to-speech translation within its app.
Although not strictly about accessibility, I think UPI Circle is worth referencing, too. UPI Circle is an initiative where a primary user of the unified payments interface (UPI) who has an associated bank account will now be able to delegate payments using mobile apps to someone they trust who will also need a UPI ID but may or may not have a bank account. This could be a beneficial option to banking customers who have challenges making payments (either in-person or digitally).
It’s clear that the wider fintech industry as a whole can do much more. There is obviously a necessity to prioritise certain areas, but the essential ask is that when firms implement solutions to improve accessibility, they are well thought out and executed.
And for businesses, consumer panels inclusive of a broad range of disabilities are critical to understand the diverse needs of your customers.
My hope for 2025 is that ‘accessible by default’ is used in conversation as commonly as digital, cloud and AI.
About the author
Philip Benton is a Principal Fintech Analyst at Omdia and writes analysis on the issues driving technological change in financial services. Prior to Omdia, he led consumer trends research in retail and payments at strategic market research firm Euromonitor.
In this column, Philip discusses the technological implications and consumer expectations of the latest fintech trends.
You can find more of Philip’s views on fintech via LinkedIn or follow him on X @bentonfintech.