Fintech holds promise for recovery, but women must be part of the equation

Fintech Diversity Radar builds first dataset on gender diversity
by Denise Gee, Co-Founder and MD, findexable

Outsize performance of firms run by diverse teams is well documented. According to research by McKinsey, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. A global pandemic – and subsequent economic shock – threatens to reverse hard won gains of the last two decades in accelerating gender diversity within firms across the economy. 

Fintech holds promise for recovery, but women must be part of the equation

Fintech – a global phenomenon with the power to remove barriers between previously disparate industries, increase access to financial services among poor and marginal communities, and knit the digital economy together – will play an essential role in the economic recovery in 2021 and beyond.

While evidence suggests fintech firms return more value to investors than fast-growing firms in other technology sectors, there are also fears that firms in the sector underperform their larger rivals in incumbent finance and technology in their employment of women in general – and in particular, by the proportion of women in positions of leadership. 

Similarly, despite being the world’s largest and fastest-growing market – controlling $216 trillion in spending (according the Financial Alliance for Women) – women remain largely overlooked and underserved among fintechs, most of which do not use sex-disaggregated data to inform their product design decisions.

The Fintech Diversity Radar is an initiative launched by global data analytics firm, findexable, to build the world’s first dataset on gender diversity in global fintech to enable scaling companies and incumbent peers benchmark progress and identify measurable steps to improve. Through a series of cycles – starting with a real-time global market map and report, and culminating in the launch of a digital scorecard and real-time platform – the initiative will:   

• Map the global fintech landscape to identify how, and where, women are employed and assess progress
• Advance the employment of women in fintech globally by identifying practical actions to improve gender balance
• Build a roadmap for the advancement of female entrepreneurship in advanced and high growth markets
• Identify the cause and effect of success in serving female customers
• Highlight which countries, regions and firms are out-performing – to analyse the reasons for success

It will focus on the actions that fintechs can take to improve gender equity and cater for the unmet needs of women. The Radar will ask three fundamental questions:   

• Does a diverse employee demographic equate to better, more relevant solutions for female customers?
• How can we build companies that empower female entrepreneurs?
• How do we create financial products and services that look like the real world?

The Fintech Diversity Radar is launching a survey to determine the effectiveness of reducing exclusion among women team members, women entrepreneurs and women customers and establish best practice to advance progress. Help fill the gap by completing the survey on http://bit.ly/FDRpress. 

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