The global fintech community is being asked to get involved in a new study on diversity, starting with women. Findexable‘s ‘Fintech Diversity Radar’ will collect data from firms to produce a “real-time report” that will track progress and offer businesses advice to improve their diversity.

The Fintech Diversity Radar “aims to help the fintech sector improve diversity agendas by helping to track company performance, compare with other companies, and help develop targets and programs,” according to a shared statement from the real-time data collection company.

Numerous studies show that diverse teams outperform others, and considering the lack of women and ethnic minorities in senior fintech roles, especially in the UK, the industry needs to diversify its workforce if it wants to innovate and perform better and engage with its diverse customer base.

The Radar already has industry support from sponsors, including London-based Global Processing Services and founding partners Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and non-profit, Financial Alliance for Women.

One of the main factors holding fintech firms back from diversity, according to Findexable, is the lack of “up-to-date data to reflect diversity disparities,” which is where their real-time reporting comes in.

Here’s what the Radar will do:

• Map the global fintech landscape to identify where women are employed and assess progress
• Advance the employment of women by identifying practical actions to improve gender balance
• Build a roadmap for the advancement of female entrepreneurship in advanced and high growth markets
• Identify the cause and effect of success in serving female customers
• Highlight which countries, regions, and firms are outperforming and analyse the reasons for their success

Findexable’s Founder and Managing Director, Denise Gee, said: “Gender diversity makes business sense – a more diverse workforce equals more success and improvement is predicated on the ability to measure and track performance. For fintech’s benefits to spread evenly across societies, we need relevant, up-to-date, and validated data, which is why we have launched the Diversity Radar. We urge everyone in our industry to ‘Choose to Challenge’ and collaborate in building a progressive, diverse industry.”

Findexable invites all privately owned fintech firms to participate in its anonymous survey. The project’s findings will be revealed in a free data-led report set to launch in August 2021.