A look to a fairer future

Over 200 people from 90 companies joined the Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF) team for a special evening to applaud the past, present and future of its ground-breaking Accelerating Change Together (ACT) research programme on the evening of Tuesday 10th May.

Over 200 people from 90 companies joined the Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF) team for a special evening to applaud the past, present and future of its ground-breaking Accelerating Change Together (ACT) research programme on the evening of Tuesday 10th May.

With the second year of the ACT research under way, the evening was the first opportunity to thank advisers, sponsors, supporters and volunteers in person given the launch of the initial report in November 2020, and the subsequent release of the GOOD FINANCE Framework in June 2021, were all held online due to the pandemic.

In the medieval hall’s special atmosphere, we heard from our President, Anna Lane as she welcomed guests and highlighted the considerable agenda of WIBF, which includes the change to a social enterprise, its social mobility programme and the considerable work going on behind the scenes to allow the organisation to scale.

Vivienne Artz OBE, who initiated the ACT programme as the WIBF President from 2017-2020, then took to the stage to highlight the rationale for the ACT programme and flag just some of the successes. Next, Dr Grace Lordan, founding director of The Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics and ACT’s lead academic, detailed the current progress of the 100 Diverse Voices: Future of Work research in progress and how the research overall is supporting the three key themes she believes help women progress, i.e. the need to look at opportunities, visibility and voice.

Yasmine Chinwala OBE, Partner, New Financial LLP then took to the microphone as she detailed the work her team does as the data partners for HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, analysing the responses over time from the 400+ signatories to the charter, as well as emphasising the opportunities for the financial services sector following its successful support for the economy and clients during COVID-19. What’s next on the agenda will be detailed in the next annual review due soon.

It was then the turn of Edwina Dunn OBE, Founder of The Female Lead, to highlight the work her team has undertaken, specifically with regard to The Unentitled Mindset report, which sought to set out why women struggle at work, and flag the upcoming report being researched with King’s Business School on hybrid working.

Jina Melnyk, Managing Director, Corndel Advance, was then on hand to talk to the audience about the training programme she is organising in partnership with WIBF to help senior women, which will give them the tools, the techniques, the skills that will help enable them become better, more effective leaders in banking and finance. The programme which pilots this summer, will embed findings from the GOOD FINANCE Framework, and also help senior women develop a pan-industry network, given the shared training sessions attendees will join.

Last but not least, Vivi Friedgut, Founder and CEO of Blackbullion, highlighted how women in education see lower financial support than their male peers at university and that this leads to significant drop outs and how her own financial education start-up is seeking to support students with funding to help them complete their studies and graduate to begin successful careers.

The evening also saw Anna call to the stage Charlotte Davey, the business manager for Aviva plc’s CEO, Amanda Blanc, to show solidarity for the comments made at the company’s annual general meeting of shareholders.

The WIBF team would like to thank all those that joined and those that couldn’t for their support for ACT and for the organisation. It is appreciated.

For those interested in finding out more about the ACT research programme, please click here. If you are interested in becoming and partner and actively supporting the project, please contact Nicky King for details.

Do watch this short video of the event highlights!