“There are few women working in the Fintech sector and we want to inspire the new generation to consider a career in FinTech and to become part of this exciting field,” said Assistant Professor Alessia Paccagnini from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. “It is important to discuss the challenges faced by women in this sector and how we can increase awareness about the gender imbalance”

The Women in FinTech Conference will take place from September 22-23, 2021 and welcomes those interested in understanding the current and future challenges of women working in FinTech, in both academia and in industry, to attend.

The conference is led by a group of members of COST Action FinTech and AI—an organisation established to investigate AI and Fintech from three different angles: Transparency in FinTech, Transparent versus Black Box Decision-Support Models in the Financial Industry, and Transparency into Investment Product Performance for Clients. The Action is designed to bridge the gap between academia, industry, the public, and governmental organizations by working in an interdisciplinary way across Europe and focusing on innovation.

“Our objective is to increase discussion around the topic of increasing gender diversity in the sector. For example, women in our COST Action network will be able to collaborate for further projects, organize mentorship activities and future spin-off workshops. Moreover, we hope to attract future female Ph.D. students or researchers to work in this field,” continued Dr Paccagnini.

Two roundtable discussions that are expected to draw enthusiasm are “How can schools respond to gender bias and gender differences?” and “Fintech diversity: Wider EU perspective”. The discussion will explore the important and crucial topics of the role of the school in gender bias and gender differences, and how FinTech is different in EU for women.

The board of organisers is composed of leading academics including Dr. Alessia Paccagnini, UCD College of Business; Dr. Galena Pisoni, University of Côte d'Azur; Dr. Claudia Tarantola, University of Pavia and Hermes Universities Network; Dr. Alessandra Tanda, Università degli Studi di Pavia; Dr. Albulena Shala, University of Prishtina; and Meriem Kherbouche, PhD student Eötvös Loránd University.
This event is open to the general public and will take place on September 22 (Register here.) and 23 (Register here.), 2021.