Thanks to the United Nations 2025 International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), we have the perfect opportunity to raise awareness of our model and grow the global mutual and cooperative sector. In our guest blog from Andrew Whyte, Chief Executive of the Association of Financial Mutuals (AFM, UK), Andrew reflects on the UK Government’s promise to double the size of the mutual and cooperative sector, including specifically in financial services.

We hope Andrew’s article will inspire ICMIF members to talk to their own governments around the world, either directly or through their national mutual/cooperative apex bodies, about the value of our sector and even obtain similar commitments from their governments to significantly grow the sector in their country.

The Labour Party’s manifesto for last year’s UK General Election included a commitment to double the size of the of the mutual and cooperative sector, including specifically in financial services. Over recent months the new Government has started to set out its approach to achieving that ambition. While there hasn’t yet been any legislation or specific policy changes, there have been a number of public statements from Ministers which have indicated the general direction of policy.

Probably most significant was the Chancellor’s speech at the Mansion House in the City of London on 14 November 2024, a wide-ranging speech about the UK financial services sector as a whole and its centrality to the Government’s growth agenda. There’s a summary of the key points in her speech on gov.uk, the UK Government’s website. In one section of the speech, the Chancellor highlighted “the invaluable role of the mutual and cooperative sector in driving inclusive growth across the UK” and announced “a package to help unlock the full potential of the sector.” The Association of Financial Mutuals (AFM) published a statement welcoming the commitments in the Chancellor’s speech as “important first steps towards achieving the Government’s aspiration”.

The measures announced include a commitment to support the Law Commission reviews to modernise the legal framework for friendly societies and mutual insurers. The Law Commission published its consultation document for legislative reform in March 2025 and together with our members, AFM will engage actively in the subsequent consultation. The Chancellor also announced that she had asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to produce a report on the mutual landscape to be published by the end of 2025 and we have already met both the FCA and PRA to discuss the report.

As has been widely reported in the UK media, the Prime Minister, Chancellor and other Ministers have asked the regulators in all sectors, including the PRA and FCA, to take steps to support our sector’s growth. In that context, the FCA convened a round table for trade bodies in the mutual sector in December to discuss how they could support the mutual sector to grow. Together with our fellow trade bodies in the Mutuals & Co-operatives Together (MCT) group – Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL), the Building Societies Association (BSA) and Co-ops UK – we attended the roundtable and made the case for a more enabling and proportionate regulatory framework, designed to support growth and which recognised our distinctive mutual status.

One of the key asks in the MCT’s joint Mutuals Prospectus was for “a new collaboration between cooperative and mutual businesses, government and society.” So, it was good news to see the Chancellor’s welcome in her speech for the Mutual and Co-operative Sector Business Council (MCSBC). The MCSBC is an industry led group which aims to support the Government’s commitment to double the size of the mutual and cooperative economy and act as a conduit between the mutual sector and the Government. It will work positively with Government to ensure that there is proper, inclusive, engagement on issues impacting the sector.

Membership of MCSBC includes some large UK mutual and cooperative firms – AFM’s fellow ICMIF members Royal London and the Co-operative Group, along with Nationwide, Arla and Arup. But recognising that small and sized firms make up the majority of the sector, trade bodies will also be members to reflect and represent the breadth and diversity of the sector: AFM, ABCUL, BSA, Co-ops UK, and the Employee Ownership Association.

The MCSBC has already started work, including identifying a number of priority areas of work and we will be looking for specialist expertise from across AFM members to contribute to these workstreams. The first full meeting of the Council took place in early March and was attended by Ministers from two Government departments – the Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade.

It is still early days but at this stage it looks like the UK Government is taking positive steps and engaging with the mutual and cooperative sector to work together to achieve that ambitious target.

One of the ways ICMIF is working to support the growth of the sector around the world is via the new Cooperatives and Mutuals Leadership Circle (CM50), which brings together many cooperative and mutual leaders from across the globe, including a number from the ICMIF membership. Leveraging the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives (IYC2025), the CM50 CEOs will champion the cooperative and mutual business model on the global stage, with national governments in the audience. Learn more here.