Fintech and financial services have spent years talking about inclusion, yet many workplaces still struggle to make room for honest challenge, different perspectives and difficult conversations.
As firms face faster technology change, higher risk and growing pressure to innovate responsibly, the ability to hear from more than one type of voice is becoming a business issue as much as a cultural one.
Nadia Edwards-Dashti, chief customer officer at financial services recruitment firm Harrington Starr, argues that financial services and fintech firms need more inclusive leadership cultures to encourage better debate, stronger decisions and fewer blind spots.
When did positive debate at work dwindle? How have we come to accept that agreeing with the highest-paid person in the room is the safest strategy? What happens when the people who see the gaps are punished for raising concerns?
And what happens when those people are eventually made redundant? These are questions that Samantha Emery (Sam) and I have been bringing into leadership conversations across financial services and fintech since early 2025.
The message from us has been clear. Without different voices, our industry becomes weaker. It becomes less adaptable and less innovative. That means it becomes less safe.
This is about survival for the people who work here and the businesses trying to remain profitable. If everyone in the room thinks the same way, challenges the same way and approaches risk the same way, then eventually blind spots become business problems.
No debate
Sam has spent her career in the sector working for regulators, banks and fintech boards. She put it perfectly when she said that without inclusion, we do not have safe and open debate at work. Constructive challenge that builds out ideas, expands beyond the consensus view and safeguards delivery, all increasingly critical as we step into an AI-native, smart money, post-quantum future.
She asks an important question that more leaders should be considering: “Can we manage the increasing risk profile in the sector without hitting a crisis?”
I recently spoke with four leaders who each shared powerful examples of why seeking more opinions is a ‘have to have’ and certainly not a ‘nice to have.’
True inclusion
Iain Armstrong works in financial crime at ComplyAdvantage, an AI-driven financial crime risk data and detection company. He sees inclusion through the lens of organisational effectiveness, intelligence and adaptability. In sectors like fintech, financial crime and financial services, he sees diversity of thought as operationally necessary for stronger decision-making and innovation.
He says: “True inclusion means accepting that it’s actually supposed to be harder.” That is where many organisations struggle and why so many shy away from everyday inclusion. More perspectives do create more friction, more challenge and more time spent understanding each other. As Iain explained: “The payoff is that you make better decisions.”
He spoke about collective intelligence and cognitive diversity being far better predictors of future team performance than the IQ of the individuals within the team. Teams that communicate more equally tend to be more collectively intelligent.
For Iain, “the case for diversity is a performance argument”. You need people who can approach the same problem from radically different angles. And perhaps most importantly, “if you hire for optimal group intelligence, the diversity should naturally follow”.
Performative culture
Jessica Rhodes, global marketing director at global payment orchestration platform Paysecure, shared a very similar perspective from a marketing and brand standpoint. For Jessica, strong cultures are built by creating environments where people can experiment, ask questions and be wrong.
As she put it: “It’s less about the policies on paper and more about everyday behaviour.” Jessica constantly asks questions many organisations avoid, “Who speaks in meetings? Who gets those opportunities? Who gets to be listened to?”
An authentic connection with customers does not happen accidentally. It happens when businesses genuinely listen, evolve and reflect the people they serve. She made a particularly powerful point about performative culture saying “You can’t hide behind a false claim on a social media post.”
Equally she said: “There’s nothing worse than something going out that doesn’t reflect how everybody feels internally.” That disconnect between external messaging and internal culture is something audiences spot very quickly now. Authenticity matters commercially as much as culturally. Strong businesses create conditions where people can speak, experiment, return, grow and be properly heard. Without this, more and more firms will feel the impact of their disconnect from customers, partners and ultimately investors.
Changing cultures
Amanda Jenkins is the co-founder and chief impact officer at 10x Banking, the cloud-native core banking platform. She connected business impact directly to purpose, loyalty and long term innovation. Without staff feeling included, she has seen many businesses struggle with both success and impact. She spoke passionately about technology careers and how creative they truly are; “People don’t necessarily realise just how creative a career in technology is.”
When discussing her own role title, she explained, “Impact is to make the world a better place through our work.” That shared sense of mission becomes a foundation that brings very different people together around a common purpose. Amanda focuses on listening properly, “Rather than implement something and hope for the best, we actually ask people for advice and action that.”
That simple shift changes culture entirely. It creates safety, communication, openness and trust. Over time, that builds loyalty, stronger teams and better outcomes through mentoring, wellbeing, flexibility, sustainability, networks and opportunities for people who may never previously have seen themselves in technology.
Business need
Finally, Sarah Timms, co-founder and CPTO of InTick, the listed derivatives blocking network, spoke about inclusion as a business necessity. She see this through the lens of innovation and product development. For Sarah, better products come from understanding different perspectives deeply and intentionally.
She explained that when people are genuinely able to be themselves at work, brilliance often follows, “Someone in the room will come out with something completely out of left field.” And often, that idea becomes the breakthrough because nobody else in the room was thinking that way. She has seen it repeatedly and says it consistently leads to better outcomes. Sarah explained, “In technology, you very proactively pull together people with very diverse ways of thinking.”
She added, “You do it because you end up with a better product as a result.” It is about creating environments where different thinking can genuinely exist and influence outcomes. Sarah also spoke about innovation being rooted in listening, “You stay ahead of innovation by constantly talking to your customers and deeply listening to their pain points.”
Ultimately, her mindset comes back to one simple question, “Is there a better way?” And why would we not want the best solution?
What makes us unique
Across all of these conversations, the same theme kept emerging. Inclusion is not separate from performance, it defines the bounds of it and what can be achieved as a result.
In a sector moving as quickly as fintech and financial services, where risk, regulation, customer expectations and innovation are all accelerating simultaneously, reducing perspectives may be one of the greatest risks of all. Sam said in a recent conversation, “Not all of us get to walk this earth friction-free, and it shows, but that doesn’t change what someone can bring to the table.”
These examples are evidence of the people getting it right. Sadly, a lot of the industry has been getting it wrong. Fearing what makes us unique, erasing the differences in the room and hiring in their own image.
This is happening across the entire ecosystem and en masse. As Sam says: “One hiring decision, one funding opportunity, one procurement contract… You can say it’s just one. But if everyone makes that same choice, is this getting us where we need to be?”
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