SIR Vince Cable is the keynote speaker at a conference to promote a bank for Hampshire.

The former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, will be at Winchester Guildhall for the fourth European Conference on Banking and the Economy (ECOBATE 2016).

Several experts and local banking leaders will speak about the future of banking in Hampshire and beyond.

The organiser of the event, on Wednesday October 12, Prof Richard Werner, professor of banking at the University of Southampton, is keen to attract the local community.

He said: “We are all fed up with the big banks and their sharp methods. But few people are aware it is possible to build local banks that benefit the local economy.

“This is what we are doing with the Hampshire Community Bank.”

Sir Vince has been backing the establishment of the Hampshire Community Bank, which is the first of a new kind of local bank that could reshape the UK banking industry.

The conference brings together academics, banking leaders, policy-makers and the general public. There will be opportunities to ask questions and join the discussions. Many experts, staff from local authorities across the UK, but also a wide cross section of society will gather in Winchester Guildhall to hear more about this new approach to banking, focused on the local community and local firms.

“Banking is changing”, said Prof Werner. “While there are a number of new challenger banks in the UK, these are all for-profit enterprises that are likely to be swallowed up by large banks in the future. We need ‘more than profit’ banks.”

Georg Fahrenschon, the president of the German Association of Public Savings Banks (Sparkasse) will also speak in Winchester and discuss how Germany succeeded in keeping hundreds of community banks alive and thriving, and how this has been supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, the backbone of the German economy in the past 200 years.

German community banks are famous for having increased their lending to local firms after the financial crisis, ensuring no downturn in Germany’s economy.

The conference also features the former German defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, tipped as a future successor to Angela Merkel.

Local representatives include Prof Neil Marriott, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winchester, Richard Hall from Future South (formerly Future Solent), and representatives from local authorities and local businesses.

The public is invited to attend from 4pm. Those unable to make it at 4pm can join the final session from 6pm to 8pm. Entry is free.

Visit: ecobate.arbe.org.uk. For questions, call Local First Community Interest Company at 01962 861062 or email ecobate@arbe.org.uk.