Iona Bain
Leading voice in the field of personal finance
*Fees are a guide only. Exact cost will be dependent on requirements and are subject to change.
About Iona Bain
Iona first gained recognition after founding the pioneering Young Money Blog in 2011, created to help young people better understand their finances. Her approachable and accessible style quickly established her as one of the most respected financial commentators of her generation. Her own experiences navigating money challenges, including living as a struggling musician in Edinburgh and managing dyscalculia, continue to shape her empathetic and practical approach to financial education.
Alongside her television work, Iona has appeared on programmes including Question Time, Newsnight, Rip Off Britain, The One Show and Channel 4’s Cryptocurrency: Has the Bubble Burst?. She has also served as the “Money Hacker” for BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks and was a financial reporter on Steph’s Packed Lunch.
A regular contributor to national publications including the Financial Times, Metro, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent, Iona is also the author of Own It!, a book focused on helping young people build financial confidence and long-term security.
Iona is one of the UK’s busiest speakers within the financial sector and is frequently invited to speak to businesses about financial wellbeing, generational trends, the future of work, fintech and how organisations can better engage younger customers and employees. She is also a highly experienced conference chair, moderator and awards host, known for her ability to make financial and economic topics engaging and accessible to broad audiences.
Passionate about financial education and inclusion, Iona has collaborated with organisations including BBC Bitesize, Young Scot and the Lloyds Banking Academy, and is an ambassador for the National Numeracy charity, campaigning for greater awareness of dyscalculia. She also became the youngest-ever governor of the Pensions Policy Institute.
Iona’s past clients include: Monzo, Pensions UK, Santander, LinkedIn, Legal & General, NatWest, Financial Wellbeing (FinWell), Baillie Gifford, Skipton Building Society, Pensions Management Institute, BNY Mellon, Cisco.
To book Keynote Speaker Iona Bain, contact The Speakers Agency on +44(0)1332 810481 or email enquiries@thespeakersagency.com
Here you can find links to books by Iona Bain. For bulk book orders for your event please speak with a member of the team.
Britain and Money: What’s Really Changed?
Drawing on thousands of conversations with consumers, this talk looks beyond the headlines to explore what’s really changing. Younger generations have rewritten the rules around work, housing, retirement, saving and spending, fundamentally altering the landscape for businesses, policymakers, and employers.
The Psychology of Money
The biggest barriers to good financial decisions are mathematical and emotional. Whether it’s pensions, debt, fraud or investing, people often know what they should do but struggle to act. Through stories from BBC Morning Live, Panorama and years of consumer reporting, this talk explores what really drives financial behaviour, and why understanding people’s behaviour is just as important as understanding products.
Building Trust in an Age of AI
AI has the potential to transform financial guidance, improve customer service and make support more accessible than ever before. But technology also creates new risks, new expectations and new questions about trust. This talk looks at where innovation is genuinely helping consumers, where it’s falling short, and how organisations can use technology without losing sight of the people they’re trying to serve.
Talking About Money Better
Fifteen years of reporting and broadcasting, answering the publics’ questions on finance has reinforced one lesson above all: people switch off when financial information becomes complicated. This talk explores how to communicate difficult subjects with clarity, confidence and empathy, whether you’re talking to customers, employees or the media.
Client Feedback
"Articulate, measured and intelligent."
Naomi Mellor
"A huge thanks to Iona - absolutely wonderful talk and she is a charming and lovely individual too. She ended the event beautifully and her talk was pitch perfect on the topic she had been given."
Suffolk Building Society
