Is Bank Of Dave based on a true story?

THE Dave’s Bank The true story adds an extra layer of captivating weirdness to the 2023 Netflix film, and the fact that Dave’s attempts to open his own bank actually happened only serves to make the underdog’s strange story all the more charming. One of several Netflix productions released in the UK, director Chris Foggin’s dramatic comedy tells the story of Dave Fishwick (Rory Kinnear), a millionaire who decides to try opening his own bank. The reasons he wants to do this are healthy and well-intentioned – it’s not because he wants to make a profit, but because he feels the financial sector in the UK is not giving people a fair shake.

Dave simply wants to create a fair financial lender so that businesses in his local community have a fair start. Unfortunately, to do this it needs to acquire a license from the FSA (Financial Services Authority) to be an officially regulated bank. Existing banks are determined to prevent this from happening, and Dave’s Bank details his struggles against the established banking sector simply because he wants to create opportunities for his friends and neighbors. Although the film admits that it is just “true(ish)”, the Dave’s Bank the true story is just as fascinating as the 2023 Netflix movie, even if many details have changed from the real events.

Bank Of Dave’s Dave Fishwick Is Real

The Netflix film is about a real person who actually tried to open his own bank

Although director Chris Foggin and screenwriter Piers Ashworth exercised some creative license, the plot of the 2023 Netflix film – as incredible as it sounds – isn’t all that different from the Dave’s Bank true story. Although the premise seems like a fictional story, Dave Fishwick is a real person and actually tried to open his own bank. Nothing about the premise of Dave’s Bank was invented. It’s an adaptation of true events, which many viewers find surprising given how well it fits the format of a classic underdog film.

The real Dave Fishwick is a UK businessman who made his fortune by starting his own minibus company, David Fishwick Minibus Sales, in 1994. His attempts to open his own bank, as seen in Dave’s Bank began in the years following the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Just like in the Netflix film, Dave Fishwick was shocked that many of his customers, as well as businesses in the local community, were denied loans. Seeing the stress and turmoil this caused them prompted him to take action and open Burnley Savings and Loans in 2011.

Burnley Savings and Loans Never Became a Bank in Real Life

The Bank Of Dave True Story saw BSAL become a peer-to-peer lender

In Dave Bank, Dave Fishwick’s attempts to open his own bank were successful. Despite the efforts of existing UK banks, the FSA granted it the deposit-taking license it needed after it managed to raise the £10,000.00 in reserve capital required. Burnley Savings and Loans became an officially regulated bank, through which Dave’s community would finally have access to fair financial conduct (such as making loans to businesses and customers who could clearly repay them) that established national banks did not offer. However, while this made for an emotional ending to the 2023 Netflix movie, it’s also a significant departure from the Dave’s Bank true story.

In real life, Dave Fishwick’s Burnley Savings and Loans never received a deposit-taking license from the FSA. That didn’t stop him, however. BSAL was launched in 2011 with a consumer credit license and continues to operate today. Just as the real Dave Fishwick intended, BSAL’s presence has been a huge benefit to local businesses and the wider community. They still have access to the fair financial practices he expected, just under a slightly different model than he envisioned.

Burnley’s real savings and loans Dave’s Bank is not technically a bank, but offers loans under a peer-to-peer crowdfunding model. It’s an interesting distinction and difficult to explain without some understanding of how various types of financial services work.

While both the fictional and real Dave Fishwick managed to create the positive outcome they hoped for for their community, it’s completely understandable why the 2023 Netflix film changed this detail from the Dave’s Bank true story.

Having the fictional Dave open his own bank provided a much more satisfying (and easier to explain) ending to the underdog narrative, while trying to copy real events exactly would have slowed down the plot and required a lot of exposition that the quirky UK film simply didn’t need.

Sir Charles Denbigh played no role in the true story of Dave’s Bank

Hugh Bonneville’s nefarious banker was invented for the Netflix film

Many of the changes introduced in the Dave’s Bank The true story of the Netflix film was made with a single goal – to make the already uplifting real events better fit the narrative format of a film. One of the clearest examples of this is Hugh Bonneville’s character, Sir Charles Denbigh. Sir Charles is the main antagonist of Dave Bank, and he behaves almost like a character from a UK gangster film in his efforts to ensure that Dave’s plan to register BSAL as an officially regulated bank is unsuccessful.

However, Sir Charles Denbigh is not a real person. The sly Sir Charles tries to get Dave to have a criminal record in Dave Bank, which would ensure he would never get the license he needed from the FSA. In real life, however, this never happened – or anything close to it. Although the real Dave Fishwick’s attempts to open his own bank probably caused confusion, the UK financial industry did nothing to stop him.

There was the real Dave Fishwick from Dave’s Bank If the true story had been successful, it would definitely have created a stir as it would have made Burnley Savings and Loans the first new officially licensed and regulated bank in over 150 years. However, the prospect has not led anyone like the fictional Sir Charles Denbigh to get involved, nor have UK banks even considered actions like those seen in the 2023 film (despite them being against their plans). In real life, the reason BSAL never became a bank is simply because Dave Fishwick did not obtain a license to accept deposits and instead decided that he could achieve his intended goals with a peer-to-peer lending model. .

Def Leppard never played a show to support the real Dave from Bank Of Dave

They appeared in the film because Dave Fishwick is a fan

One of the most uplifting moments Dave’s Bank It happened when the fictional Dave Fishwick performed a fundraising concert at Turf Moor, the football stadium of Burnley Football Club. The scene also came with a cameo – legendary 1980s rock band Def Leppard. While it was certainly an inspiring twist for the film, the concert seen in Dave’s Bank never happened.

Def Leppard never traveled to the UK to help the real Dave Fishwick raise funds for his community bank. For starters, there was never a fundraising concert. This moment was not taken from anything in the Dave’s Bank true and completely fictional story, created exclusively for the 2023 Netflix film. The reason why Def Leppard was chosen to be the band that will play the show in Dave’s Bank It’s also simple – the real Dave Fishwick is a huge fan.

The 2023 movie didn’t make up for his dedication to altruism

Part of the reason why Rory Kinnear’s Dave Fishwick in Dave’s Bank is so captivating is that it bucks many tropes and trends associated with millionaires in cinema. He is not greedy nor does he follow any self-interest in his plans to open his own bank. Instead, he is genuinely selfless, and throughout the film it becomes clear that he is motivated by concern for his community, with additional reasons to see some kind of financial return.

This is something the 2023 Netflix film was completely accurate in adapting the Dave’s Bank true story for screens. Much like his fictional counterpart played by Rory Kinnear, the real Dave Fishwick goes to great lengths to use his financial success to support his local community and working-class prospects across the UK.

Dave’s Bank didn’t portray Dave Fishwick any differently than how he is in real life when it comes to his dedication to uplifting his community. There were no changes to his personality to make him more suitable as the hero of a Hollywood-style underdog story. It wasn’t necessary. The man at the center of Dave’s Bank The true story is known for how dedicated he is to charitable giving, with most of BSAL’s profits going to local food banks, schools, hospitals and other community services.

What’s more, the real Dave Fishwick also used the media focus he gained in the UK while trying to turn BSAL into a bank to expose other unfair financial practices. For example, he released his own investigative documentary Dave: Ranger Loan in 2014. He used the show to expose the many corrupt and harmful practices of payday loan companies that have left many customers trapped in inescapable debt for borrowing incredibly small amounts of money. There are many exciting aspects of Dave’s Bank true story, and the fact that the real Dave Fishwick is as selfless as he is portrayed in the film is one of the most uplifting of all.