A few months ago, I watched the movie Bank of Dave on Netflix. Without knowing the backstory at first, the movie was enjoyable to watch. It’s a fictionalised biopic of the story of Dave Fishwick, a British entrepreneur based in Burnley. This reflection explores briefly the story of Dave Fishwick and the value of community support for small businesses.
What Fishwick did was, on paper, simple: he managed to get a banking licence to give out loans to the local community who couldn’t access high street bank loans during the financial crisis of 07/08 onward.
The loans served to help members of the community cover financial needs, start a business, or sustain a business in the face of economic hardship.
Getting this licence turned out to be a bureaucratic and compliance nightmare. But Fishwick eventually managed to get through and set up a small bank, “Burnley Savings and Loans,” with a catchy slogan: Bank on Dave!
The mission of the bank is simple: to support the country by lending to the country.
I am not interested in Fishwick’s journey to obtain the licence, difficult as that was. I am more interested in his story from a school dropout to a millionaire car dealership owner focused on giving back and supporting the community.
At 16, Dave quit school and started working in construction. He always wanted to start a business. But, like many, he didn’t really know what kind of business he wanted to build. Slowly, he moved from construction to sales, particularly cars. At first, he started out small, taking rundown cars, refurbishing them, and selling them for a small profit. In his own words:
"I went around all the garages and I found one that had some old part exchanges and I said, ‘Could I take that old part exchange away? I’ll clean it up. I’ll scrub it off. I’ll sell it. I’ll advertise it and I’ll bring you back an agreed amount of money, and the difference is mine.’ I eventually found a garage that agreed, and I agreed to give them £70 for this [Vauxhall] Cavalier when I sold it. I took it away, scrubbed it up, sold it for £97, so I made £27 profit. I repeated that process to the point where I could negotiate a better deal and could pay upfront, and that’s how it started." - Fishwick speaking to The Daily Telegraph in February 2023
Then one day, he revamped a minivan. He was getting many calls from interested buyers, and he finally knew what business he’d get into: supplying minivans and buses. His business slowly started growing, and it is today one of Britain’s largest minivan and bus suppliers, based in Colne, Lancashire.
But the story didn’t stop there. In the wake of the financial crisis in 07/08, many people in his community couldn’t get financial support from the banking system. Dave stepped in and started giving out small loans to everyone who needed it. A few months in, he noticed that no one was defaulting. So he decided to venture into the banking world to help out the unbanked. Community comes first.
In a sense, every other business waxes lyrical about how SMEs are the backbone of the economy, but very few actually take action to help support these SMEs. Not Dave Fishwick, though.
Since its foundation in 2011, Dave’s bank reported a total amount of £27 million in loans given to thousands of businesses by 2022.
The profit that the bank makes from these loans ends up distributed to charity.
In the movie, Dave’s lawyer says, "My client is the type of chap people in his community can trust." This quote encapsulates Dave's mission to create a banking model that genuinely supports local businesses and individuals.
If you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur, ask yourself this question: are you the type of person your community or customers can trust?
Read more about Dave Fishwick’s story, or watch the Bank of Dave movie.
