This June at The Fintech Times, we’re focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). No longer just a trending topic but an essential consideration to not only your business operations but in your offering as well, this topic feels more relevant now than ever before.
The fintech industry is known for its innovative, agile reputation, and yet it still faces a significant diversity problem that threatens to halt its growth and stop that innovation moving.
Rather than only focus on the work that still needs to be done, we here at The Fintech Times wanted to also acknowledge the great work done already by fintech companies who are shining their own spotlight on DEI. Here are just some of the companies who are making the effort and showing diversity in action.
Tremendous value
Raf De Kimpe, CEO at Fintech Week London, said:
“For Fintech Week London, diversity, equity and inclusion is one of the cornerstones our events are built on. I strongly believe that a diverse event, both on and off stage, has a tremendous added value. Since our first event in 2021, over 50 per cent of speakers have identifed as female at our flagship conference. However, it doesn’t stop there. We put in a lot of effort to make sure that our stage represents society, with a focus on including people of colour and different voices throughout. We’re happy to see that the diversity on stage is reflected in our audience.
“As a business-to-business event in the fintech and financial services industry, I feel it’s important to shine a light on how fintech can be used for good. As a matter of fact, throughout all Fintech for Good sessions in the afternoon, we worked with My Clear Text, a Speech-to-Text company that agreed to sponsor us by way of providing closed captions for these sessions, again making our event more inclusive for people that are hard of hearing or those who are neurodiverse. These closed captions were also provided during the “Women of Fintech: Inspiring inclusion and achieving together” panel and the keynote from our charity partner Street Child.”
A welcoming workplace
Lina Burdenkova, organisational development director at all-in-one financial platform for businesses, ConnectPay, said:
“ConnectPay has a strong focus on making the workplace welcoming for specialists with children. Since Lithuania boasts the 4th largest number of young professionals (ages 24-34) with higher education in the EU, many demanding and highly responsible jobs are held by parents with small children. ConnectPay supports employees with families by empowering them to decide how they work best: they can work from home more often during kid’s vacations or bring them to the office. Additionally, parents have flexible working schedules, meaning they can easily align their parenting responsibilities with work at ConnectPay.
“We recognise that the need for flexibility may arise for various reasons, so all ConnectPay employees are encouraged to utilise flexible schedules and take extra days off to prioritise their mental well-being.
We are also aiming to bring more gender equality in Lithuanian fintech and consistently maintain a balanced gender ratio at all company levels. Notably, 63 per cent of head and director-level employees are female. The pay gap varies very slightly across different levels as we are keen on achieving the best possible balance. For instance, women in specialist positions earn around 4 per cent more than their male colleagues.”
Why and what?
Emmanuel Smadja, co-founder and CEO at MPOWER Financing, student loan providers for international students, said:
“The company I’ve co-founded and ran for the past decade, MPOWER Financing, is one of the most diverse companies on the planet, and has won 6 awards for DEI last year alone. But DEI is not an end in itself, it’s a means to better decision-making, and ultimately better profitability and sustainability of a business. Starting with the ‘why’ you want DEI and ‘what’ it means in your workplace are therefore key to ensuring your DEI efforts support your business objectives and aren’t just a check-the-box exercise.
“At MPOWER, this meant creating a team that mirrors the diversity of our international student customers, in gender, age, nationality, religion, and marital/family status, so that we could better understand and address our customers’ unique needs and challenges. Another important ‘Do’ is ‘Do start early’ or ‘Don’t accumulate Diversity Debt’. At MPOWER, this meant that we started recruiting outside my network and co-founder’s network from the very first employee”
Social impact
Eve Picker, founder at real estate investing portal, Small Change, said:
“Many companies state a strong commitment to DEI but neglect to take concrete, effective action. To ensure that DEI efforts extend beyond lip service, fintechs should identify precise goals and measure progress against them. One of the most important initiatives we’ve undertaken at Small Change is the establishment of a proprietary index (The Small Change Index) that measures a broad array of factors to determine a project’s social impact. These factors include the representation of minorities and women in project leadership, the extent to which the communities that surround a project are underserved, and environmental standards.
“We only list projects that reach an impact score of 60 per cent. This has resulted in strong branding and strong DEI returns for Small Change. Although the criteria we use is specific to real estate development, fintechs in other sectors can and should develop strict criteria of their own. Furthermore, they should be prepared to report on their progress to their various stakeholders, which will enhance accountability. No one should expect overnight success, but clear and decisive steps will slowly but surely improve DEI in the fintech industry.”
Prioritise inclusion
Outhay Lovan, chief strategy officer from VizyPay, a fintech servicing small businesses in rural America, said:
“At VizyPay, we proactively take action to prioritise inclusion in the workplace. Our initiatives are included in all strategies, policies and programs that aim to foster our number one “why”: culture. In an area of unfamiliarity, when DEI is referenced, people automatically think of the colour of someone’s skin or their gender and check the box that they have DEI covered. This is not DEI. In VizyPay’s eyes, it’s about understanding the differences in everyone and applying strategies of inclusion.
“This starts with our talent acquisition process, which is all about the candidate’s experience. Resumes don’t guide us, the individual does. To create a powerful and inclusive fintech workplace, you must get to know your people first. Many of our people are not college graduates or come with a background skilled at a specific role, so VizyPay’s talent development programs include areas to train up on skills. Likewise, because many of our leaders are home-grown, we reframe the role – our leaders are not bosses and should not be referenced as such. Our leaders are coaches, understanding their employees and bringing out the best in them. We operate with open lines of communication, fostering our transparency and bringing awareness to trending issues that impact our people.”
Diverse voices
Nicole Valentine, fintech director at the Milken Institute, a think tank, said:
“DEI is embedded into our fintech program’s mission, values, and activities. Our focus on financial inclusion and access to capital drives our research and analysis, policy priorities, and the content we amplify. Diverse voices and thought leaders are essential in both telling the stories of the evolution of fintech and designing the future of finance. On our global platforms, private policy roundtables, and publications, we highlight founders and experts who bring unique and strategic perspectives from diverse groups including People of Colour, Indigenous People, LGBTQ, and Immigrants. The impact of ensuring representation in all these spaces enables representation at leading fintech companies and government committees and initiatives. Our approach to DEI is ongoing and intentional.
“Diversity of teams, ideas, and experience brings solutions to our most complex and intractable issues. At the Milken Institute, we focus on equity leads to building new systems that value ownership and profit sharing. And inclusion is the big why of fintech, as it’s a foundational element that puts the end user at the centre and reminds the industry that we are building products and services for all people and all people have a role in making them work better.”
Day-to-day reality
Zahra Alubudi, co-founder and COO of Levenue, provider of alternative finance for SaaS businesses,
“As Levenue is a post series A scale-up, we are in a privileged position as for us the company culture is still very much informed and set by our founding team’s purpose for setting up the company in the first place. As a co-founder and COO of Levenue, I am rather a rare example in the financial services world, and even more so in fintech, where women account for just 4 per cent of CEOs, only 18 per cent of executive committee members, and a mere 7.7 per cent of entrepreneurs within fintech. I am female, I am young, and I have a diverse ethnic background myself. So when I talk about DEI, it’s not just a theoretical, conceptual point, it is my actual lived experience which I bring to our business, to the service of my team and of our clients and partners.
“Since Levenue’s inception, we have put DEI at the core of our company’s policies, taking into consideration three main things: what DEI means for us; how our leadership can set the tone with DEI commitment; and how we will adapt and evolve so that we translate ambitions into day-to-day reality. Especially in our early stages when we didn’t have an HR team, leadership commitment was crucial in making hiring and advancement decisions and keeping each other accountable. It continues to be a priority as our company grows, and our DEI policies evolve to reflect and support our goal to be a truly inclusive and great company to work for and to work with.”
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