Let’s fix the gender diversity problem in the fintech sector

The fintech industry is celebrating International Women’s Day in March. This year’s theme is ‘embracing equity’ and Anjulie Patel from Nucleus365, discusses how the sector should address its diversity problem.

According to Findexable, just 2% of fintechs globally are founded by women, while nine out of 10 firms have no women at the top. More widely, a McKinsey study shows that female representation on executive teams only rose from 15% in 2014 to 20% in 2019. This indicates that we are a long way off from achieving the ideal standard.

Fintech, and the whole tech sector, needs to pay closer attention to inclusion – be that gender, ethnicity, or religion – not just diversity. There’s both a moral and a business case to doing so.

I have seen first-hand in the finance and technology industry how making women part of the decision-making process (for example, by putting them in C-suite positions) can positively impact a business from building better customer relationships to inspiring other women, as well as boosting employee engagement.

What’s more, prioritising inclusivity and making it part of your company culture has a huge impact on your product offering. So, what can the fintech sector do to achieve gender parity?

Start at the top

In every business, the culture and standards you set must start from the top. That does not mean every fintech must be founded by a female, but there should at least be female representation on the board or in leadership positions. In doing so, we are encouraging greater diversity of thought and a company’s culture is created with the needs of all employees in mind.

Nucleus365 was co-founded by a woman – Sophie Flynn, who is also our CFO. Her role has set a precedent in our business and created a working environment where everyone can thrive. In fact, 53% of staff at Nucleus365 and Transact365 (Nucleus365’s parent company) are female; a statistic we are incredibly proud of.

Embrace mentorship

The lack of female representation can make the fintech sector a lonely place for many women and it makes finding a mentor challenging. Most of us will look for a mentor with whom we share similar experiences and challenges. Most women look for other females.

Early in my career, I was lucky enough to have been led by an inspirational leader who mentored me and encouraged me to embrace being a woman in a male-dominated sector. She taught me the skills I needed to navigate the challenges that a lack of female representation brings and gave me the confidence to break down stereotypical gender barriers.

Having access to mentors in the early stages of a woman’s career can be hugely beneficial.

Whether those mentors are employees of the company or brought in from external consultancies or organisations, the fintech industry should encourage mentorships for all of its employees.

Our customers are female

The moral case for improving the gender balance of women in fintech is clear. However, there is also a significant business case. Most of us in the sector are creating products and services used by women. Whether you are a payments company like us providing systems for female-led merchant businesses, or a neobank offering banking solutions to women, understanding the needs of your customer is key in any successful company.

Fintech companies must have diverse leadership teams to create products and services that suit the needs of their diverse customers. Otherwise, we risk alienating significant groups in society from benefiting from the businesses we have spent years building and hindering our own growth.

Final thought

This International Women’s Day will no doubt dominate the fintech news agenda – and rightly so. But let’s continue the conversation beyond March and turn our words into action. There is both a moral and business case to doing so.

UK Finance reported that in the first half of 2022, criminals stole £609.8 million through authorised and unauthorised fraud and scams; and the advanced security systems used by banks prevented nearly £584 million from being stolen.

Scammers continue to focus activity on socially engineering their victims, usually with the intention of tricking them into authorising a payment to an account within their control (known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud). Tactics including scam phone calls, text messages and emails as well as fake websites and social media posts, which all aim to trick people into handing over personal details and passwords.

Rowenna Fielding is just one of many who has (nearly) fallen victim to these scams. Here she tells her story, detailing the steps the fraudster took.

Rowenna’s story

I’m sharing this in the hope that it might help others, and to assuage my total embarrassment by doing something positive.

Last month, my banking app notified me that a large amount of my money had just been spent on Facebook. Now, I don’t even have an active Facebook account, so I knew that wasn’t legit.

I reported the transaction as fraudulent to my bank, and received a message from the support team that their fraud investigation people would be in touch.

Two days later, I received a text message from a sender ID that matched my bank’s name, saying someone from their fraud team would contact me about a direct debt. I was already waiting for the fraud team call… so when a call came through from someone who said they were from my bank’s fraud team and wanted to discuss ‘recently reported fraudulent transactions’ – I believed they were kosher.

I confirmed my mobile number, name, date of birth, address and how much was in my account.

Mr Scumbag, which is what I’m calling the chap who called me, then started talking me through the process of ’protecting my account’. What he was actually doing was setting me up for the next stage of his scam.

He said my card had been cancelled (and when I looked in the app, it was – but the real fraud team could have locked it at any point following my disputed transaction report) and that a new one would be sent out.

Mr Scumbag sounded exactly like a professional, rattling off a script they’ve run through ten thousand times before.