Iona Bain

In late 2021, I joined Bafta-nominated BBC Morning Live as their resident money expert. I now appear on the UK's highest rated daytime magazine show every week, live from its studio in Manchester, to broadcast helpful information and advice to more than a million people. I also regularly present reports for the show, travelling up and down the country to cover the financial issues that matter most to people. 

I presented my first Panorama on credit card debt in January 2026, with coverage of our findings across BBC Sounds and BBC News.

In 2025, I became the host of Legal & General's flagship podcast, A Little Bit Richer, where every fortnight I speak to experts about the biggest money and careers issues affecting the younger generations. I am also a weekly financial columnist for The Observer, having previously written wekly and bi-weekly columns for the i newspaper and Metro.

I have fronted several commercial campaigns in recent times, such as Experian's financial fitness initiative with former footballer Adebayo Akinfenwa and the Pay Your Pension Some Attention initiative with reality star Gemma Collins, which was named best corporate social media and influencer campaign for 2025 by PR Week UK. I am also a prolific speaker, having appeared at scores of leading industry conferences and public events.

I was awarded Freedom of the City of London in 2024 in recognition of my contribution to financial literacy and was recently named Financial Journalist of the Year by the Institute for Financial Wellbeing in 2025.

Over my 14 year career I have appeared extensively on BBC programmes, presenting Radio 4's Moneybox and File on 4 as well as joining IFS director Paul Johnson for The Austerity Audit. I've also been a panellist on Question Time, Newsnight and Woman's Hour, and have regularly appeared on other channels including ITV and Channel 5, where I have been a frequent contributor to primetime consumer shows throughout 2024 and 2025. This has followed a long print journalism career which saw me contribute regularly to the Financial Times and a wide range of national/trade publications.

This all followed the success of Young Money Blog, an award-winning website I ran for 13 years that was widely recognised as the UK's first money blog aimed at millennials.

I am an ambassador for National Numeracy and a governor of the Pensions Policy Institute, a non-partisan charity aimed at improving pension policymaking. I have also written two books - Spare Change (2016) and Own It (2021) - both aimed at educating younger people about finance.