User:Bethia Thomas/sandbox

David Fishwick founder of Burnley Savings and Loans Limited, is a charismatic entrepreneur, business man, investor, author and philanthropist, who has championed UK banking reform through a series of television documentaries and his Sunday Times best-selling book Bank of Dave: How I Took On the Banks. It's his firm belief that ordinary working people should have access to straightforward financial products and services has given him the reputation of a people’s champion, taking on the banks in a ‘Dave and Goliath’-style struggle, winning him recognition from politicians and the world-wide media.

Fishwick earned a title as entrepreneur of the largest supplier of minibuses in the UK, trading out of a dealership in his local area of Colne in Lancashire In September 2011, Fishwick, more commonly known as Dave, opened the doors of Burnley Savings and Loans Limited (BSAL) to provide local people with a real  alternative to established high street banks. Trading under the slogan “Bank on Dave!”, BSAL was created in response to the decline in lending to small and medium size businesses after the economic downturn of 2007-08. Dave wanted to remedy this situation, and saw the need to reward sound business planning and enterprise by personally underwriting each loan and dealing with all loan customers on a case by case basis.

Within six months the company had returned a profit and, in keeping with Dave’s radical principles, had ploughed some of those profits back into the community, donating them to charities and local good causes rather than awarding bonuses to himself or his staff.

Fishwick saw the need to expand this model and offer further products and services to a broader audience, and in 2017 applied to the Prudential Regulation Authority to open a fully registered and authorised bank, The Bank of Dave. The application is currently ongoing with an established team of banking professionals in place to navigate the complex path to become a UK regulated bank.

The television series ‘Bank of Dave’, screened in July 2012 on Channel 4, documented the opening of BSAL, with a follow-up episode named Bank of Dave: Fighting the Fat Cats shown in February 2013. Fishwick also wrote a book by the same title describing what the venture has entailed. His notoriety spread with successive media and press appearances, and has had significant support for his model of banking from MPs from across the UK.

David’s many TV series include Secret Millions where he raised £2 million pounds to help disadvantaged young people across the UK and the award-winning 'Loan Ranger' Series looking at how payday loan companies exploit the poor, vulnerable and desperate. He now works with media giants Warner Bros making television for Channel 4 that truly makes a positive difference to people’s lives.

The Bank of Dave series won the 2012 RTS Award for Best Nations/Regions Programme, and the 2013 BAFTA Scotland Award for Best features & Factual Entertainment Programme. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and Broadcast Award.

In his personal life, Dave lives happily with his family and pet dog Jack in Burnley and enjoys piloting his helicopter. Dave is currently filming a new Channel 4 six-part series due to be transmitted in 2018.