Charters

The Charter:

commits firms to creating and maintaining an environment where Black talent can be identified, developed and promoted for the benefit of individuals and the organisation;

commits firms, within that environment, to support the recruitment of Black employees and their development and progression into senior roles in the financial and professional services sectors by focusing on the entire executive pipeline;

Recognises the diversity of the financial and professional services sectors, and that firms will have different starting points – each firm should therefore implement the right strategy for its organisation;

and

in order to support the transparency and accountability needed to drive change, requires firms to report publicly on the steps they have taken to create and maintain an environment for the identification, development and promotion of Black talent and on the progress to deliver against their targets.

The UK FinTech ecosystem is world-leading, and offers exciting opportunities for business, investment and talent. However, in recent years, a spotlight has been shone upon a lack of inclusion & diversity, with instances of harassment surfacing in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and gender pay gap reporting. Today, the call for an inclusive industry is becoming even stronger, with the FCA mandating for a focus on non-financial misconduct and encouraging speak up cultures.

At the start of this year, Innovate Finance, InChorus, Level 39 and FinTech Alliance surveyed FinTech employees, to better understand the challenges around harassment that employees within the industry are facing. With the insights unearthed, they are shaping resources and tools to support the sector and have launched a five-point Industry Charter which supports companies to lean into targeted action.

The Women in Finance Charter is a scheme by HM Treasury which actively encourages financial services firms to enact change to promote gender diversity:

The Charter:

• Commits firms to supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services sector
• Recognises the diversity of the sector and that firms will have different starting points
• Requires firms to publicly report on progress to deliver against these internal targets to support the transparency and accountability needed to drive change

Promoting diversity and inclusion are important priorities for Innovate Finance; it is why we launched our Diversity Programme in October last year and organised a new range of Women in FinTech initiatives for 2018/19.

Target for Innovate Finance:

We hope our participation in Charter inspires other organisations and individuals to take a pledge for greater gender parity. In doing so, we will inspire the next generation of female innovators and instil in industry a recognition of the benefits of diversity.

Our progress so far (December 2020):

Innovate Finance are proud signatories of the Women in Finance Charter since 2017. We are pleased to say that we have attained our target of at least 50% women in senior management positions. As an Industry Body, we actively encourage our members to participate in the Charter.

Since 2017, we have seen:

•     86% Female senior managers as percentage of total senior management (target is minimum 50%)
•     Launched a Women in FinTech programme
•     Revitalised our annual Women in FinTech Powerlist to reflect the diversity of the roles in FinTech
•     Ensured a minimum of 40% of speaker at our annual conference (IFGS) were female

For 2021 onwards, we aim to maintain gender diversity not only in our workforce but through our events and regular member meetups.