The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Charles Bowman will welcome guests with a few opening remarks. This will be followed by speeches from Antonia Romeo, Permanent Secretary at DIT, and Charlotte Crosswell, CEO of Innovate Finance. Both leaders will use the opportunity to announce a series of special projects aimed at attracting, retaining and promoting female leaders in FinTech.

Antonia Romeo will launch The Women In FinTech Global Initiative, a campaign aimed at bringing more female entrepreneurs to the UK and to help make the nation’s FinTech ecosystem more diverse.

The initiative has three pillars: First is creating an opportunity for likeminded women to meet and to inspire, advise and mentor each other. Second is the chance to connect female entrepreneurs with a supportive investment community that understands the challenges that women face. Thirdly is to provide valuable scaling guidance by working with accelerators and incubators to offer women support through their programmes. NatWest is the first company to support DIT’s accelerator programme by offering places to women FinTech entrepreneurs to take part in the 18-month fully-funded programme. The cohort will be offered bespoke coaching, learning, workshops and free office space.

Antonia Romeo, Permanent Secretary, Department for International Trade said:
“The UK is global centre of excellence in FinTech with our FinTech hubs contributing £6.6bn to the economy each year. Together with the City of London and Innovate Finance, the Department for International Trade is proud to launch the Women in FinTech Global Initiative, to attract more inward investment to the UK from women entrepreneurs.
“The UK has an incredibly progressive diversity agenda which helps us to overcome challenges, allows us to compete in different markets and enables us to continue to drive industry innovation”.

Innovate Finance’s CEO Charlotte Crosswell will talk about their new Diversity programme led by the Women In FinTech initiative, that aims to bring about real change in the FinTech space.

Innovate Finance firmly believes that developing a more inclusive environment is at the heart of its commitment to support a more representative and sustainable financial services sector in the UK.

With this in mind, Innovate Finance has created a programme of regular events that will include a mix of learning opportunities and community building, working in partnership with its members and others.

Charlotte Crosswell, CEO of Innovate Finance said: “It is imperative we talk about and continue to highlight the business, commercial and cultural benefits of greater diversity in the workplace, either for smaller startups or larger institutions. To achieve more diversity in financial services and FinTech, we need both a top-down, and crucially, a bottom-up approach to talent development, looking not only at industry but also education and schooling, as well as support from government.”

The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Charles Bowman
said: “London is home to a world leading cluster of FinTech firms and the UK has a number of competitive advantages that can help this fast-growing sector flourish. A diverse workforce with different perspectives and experience can be a major asset for firms. This is why I’m delighted to be hosting - in partnership with Innovate Finance and the Department for International Trade - a celebration of women in FinTech. It is vital that we support the success of female entrepreneurs and ensure they have access to pathways that enable them to reach the top of their chosen sectors.”