Fiduciam becomes Women in Finance Charter signatory
Fiduciam, the short to medium term lender renowned for its business and overseas lending, has just been accepted by HM Treasury as a Women in Finance Charter signatory.
Fiduciam, which has been lending to property developers, entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises for just over four years, has a team that is almost entirely fifty-fifty men and women with 21 male and 20 female employees.
Women currently comprise 16% of Fiduciam’s senior management team, but with a number of very successful females in the firm, women will constitute at least a third of its management team within 18 months.
The broad level of diversity and equality embraced by Fiduciam is not only good for its employees, it also makes business sense as the wide mix of people makes it easier to connect to clients of both genders and helps Fiduciam to export its bridging loan product to other countries. Fiduciam has proven to be very successful in this, with over 55% of its revenues coming from exports today with 63% of this brought in by its female staff.
For instance, Fiduciam’s entire Spanish team (two underwriters, one BDM and three case managers) is female. There is a still larger gender gap in the finance industry in Spain than there is in the UK, and this has enabled Fiduciam to attract top calibre Spanish employees while providing them with a platform to grow and flourish, both professionally and personally.
For Fiduciam, equality is about attracting and retaining the best talent. When interviewing candidates, both genders at the firm and employees of several backgrounds and nationalities are involved. This intentionally helps to break any subconscious bias that may influence its recruiting so that they always employ the best person for the job, regardless of gender.
Fiduciam also believes that equality does not mean sameness, as sameness would reduce some of the main advantages of gender balance. Both genders bring differentiated perspectives, creating a more sustainable company.
Marieke Eskens, head of case management at Fiduciam, says, “Being part of such a progressive lender it made sense to me for Fiduciam to sign up to the Women in Finance Charter as the Charter’s values and commitments were already such a fundamental part of how we operated. All of our colleagues were very supportive when we introduced the idea of signing up to the Charter as all welcomed the idea to publicly affirm how seriously Fiduciam takes gender equality. The Charter really does put a mark in the sand as to where a firm stands on this subject and more organisations should not be afraid of being held publicly liable for their gender equality goals.”
Johan Groothaert, CEO of Fiduciam says, “We have signed the Women in Finance Charter in order to be held publicly accountable for our equality and gender diversity practices. We believe that diversity and inclusiveness in our workplace are conducive to a successful and dynamic business environment. As a growing international business with employees from 15 different countries speaking twenty different languages, diversity and gender equality are integral parts of our culture.
“We also believe that the Women in Finance Charter is a fundamentally important initiative to broaden the diversity of financial services companies across the UK. The more companies sign up to initiatives such as these, the more it influences other firms to do the same thing, providing better career opportunities for women but also a better outcome for society as a whole.”
Women in Finance Champion, Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, said, “I’m delighted to see the Charter continue to grow. It’s the businesses that address their culture and understand the power of diversity that really succeed. The top quarter of businesses on gender diversity are 21% more likely to have above-average profits than the bottom quarter. So this is not just the right thing to do socially, it’s the right thing to do for business.”
