Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has backed a new push to help Scotland's poorest people avoid "poverty premium" when borrowing money.
He is supporting the launch of a new £1 million fund set up by the Carnegie UK Trust and features in a new short film called Speaking out for Fair Credit.
The cash will allow Scottish social enterprises to increase the availability of affordable loans to Scotland's poorest families.
An estimated 150,000 people in Scotland borrow £250 million from high cost lenders such as pay day loan firms and door step lenders annually
Mr Sheen, who is originally from Newport in Wales, has appeared in films such as Passengers, The Twilight Saga and Underworld.
He said: "High cost credit has for too long been targeted at those who can least afford it and those who are most vulnerable in our society.
"The need for ethical alternative providers is clear, whether they be on our local high streets or available online.
"But it's not just about creating more providers - we need to do more to enable them to compete with the high cost providers and to provide vital financial support to communities across the UK, putting people before profit."
An estimated 530,000 people in Scotland live in severe poverty and get by on less than £240 per week.
The so-called "poverty premium" means those who can least afford to borrow money usually pay the most to do so.
The Affordable Credit Loan Fund has been set up by the Carnegie UK Trust and Social Investment Scotland to also help more people access not-for-profit finance providers.
They will offer customers debt advice, savings opportunities and budgeting services.
Mr Sheen added: "I hope the new fund will enable ethical alternatives to increase their reach and impact with their lending and to be part of an increasing trend towards ethical lending in the UK.
"I fully support this campaign and will continue to collaborate on this mission in 2018."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here