Supporting Women in FinTech — A Perspective From Lloyds Banking Group

By Claire Calmejane, Director of Innovation in Group Digital at Lloyds Banking Group

At Lloyds Banking Group, I am proud to be surrounded by talented digital leaders such as Jo Brown, Leigh Smyth and Sophie Bialaszewski. Championing Innovate Finance’s Women in FinTech initiative forms part of our commitment to promote role models in the industry, and the breadth of talent and expertise of those that attended the Women in FinTech Fringe Event last month validates the importance of supporting the growing number of senior women working in FinTech.

This is something that we, at Lloyds Banking Group, feel extremely passionate about at, not only does this fit with our purpose of helping Britain prosper, but it also reaffirms our view that in having diverse teams we have a real and genuine opportunity to transform the banking experience, to make it simpler, easier and more inclusive for our customers.

In order to achieve this, we continually look to attract and retain the best talent of the industry or to collaborate with them through the FinTech community.

In Rachel Kent’s blog, following the event, she referenced that women make up only 5% of leadership roles at the top 50 European FinTech companies.

This is something we’re very mindful of within the Group and as part of our helping Britain prosper plan have a commitment to have 33% of our senior roles held by women in 2016, with ambitions to grow this to 40% by 2020.

This pledge has recently been reiterated by our Group Digital Director, Miguel-Ángel Rodriguez-Sola. He said: “Continuing to build an inclusive and diverse team is a continuous goal for Lloyds Banking Group and our Group Digital team. Having an inclusive and diverse workforce that represents the diversity of our customers is a necessity for a successful business.”

However we recognise that there is still more for us to do to be a diverse workforce at Lloyds Banking Group, which is why our Breakthrough network is so important to us. This network has more than 13,000 members internally and provides strong and positive female role models to support our female colleagues with their personal development and career progression. We also host regular events in our London digital hub, such as FemTech Leaders and Girls in Tech.

I am proud to work in an organisation with such a commitment to inclusion and diversity and this is something that personally motivates me to go the extra mile for our customers.

As a leader of the Group, I have always recruited the best talent; the best person for the job. I am personally very am pleased that 46% of my team are women and that we have a breadth of colleagues from different backgrounds, cultures, countries and heritages.

Whilst we’re committed to nurturing and retaining the best talent internally, we are also very supportive of Innovate Finance’s ambition to close the FinTech gender gap and celebrate the women leading the sector. In recognition of this, I would encourage everyone to put forward their nominations for the 2016 Innovate Finance Female FinTech Power List so that we can generate a comprehensive list of the most powerful and influential women in our industry in 2016.