For this week’s research article, we dive into new insights on crypto overview, digital payments, and banking. Enjoy researching!
Finance and Insurance Industries Have Highest Gender Pay Gap (Fintech Times)
In an industry typically dominated by males, inclusion and equality have become top priorities for organisations to create a more diverse workspace. The gender pay gap statistics for the UK indicate some progress towards equality, however, that progress might just be too slow. Even though the Equality Act in the UK only came into force in April 2017, historical data provides insight into the pay difference for as long as 20 years. Relevant findings suggest that the gender pay gap between male and female workers was considerably higher in 1997, with a 27.5 per cent wage difference between the two genders. The gender pay gap in the UK can also be attributed to occupation segregation. In comparison, only 15 per cent of the men worked jobs that paid less than the 25th percentile. Additionally, 58 per cent of British women worked in occupations where the median hourly pay was lower than the median, while only 45 per cent of the male workers worked in such occupations. In contrast, 54 per cent of the men worked in occupations that paid more than the median hourly pay, while the share of women working these jobs was significantly lower, at only 43 per cent. Read more
2022: a year of milestones on the road to implementing sustainable finance (UN Environment Program)
At UNEP FI, 2022 was a year in which marked important milestones, while continuing to drive the finance industry’s ambition on delivering sustainable global economies and showcasing UNEP members’ progress. But 2022 was also a year of global events that confirmed how urgently the world must move to tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Climate change-induced heat waves, floods, storms, and droughts heavily impacted populations, businesses, and nature across the globe. While the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in April warned that although we have the technology and global capital to tackle the deepening climate crisis, we are running out of time. At the same time, war in Ukraine has worsened the energy crisis and brought the topic of energy security sharply into focus. Read on for a summary of what UNEP FI and its growing membership of more than 450 financial institutions worldwide have done this year to advance sustainable finance. Find report here
CyberTech seed deal activity in Europe falters in Q3 2022 dropping 41% (Fintech Global)
CyberTech seed deal activity in Europe reached 13 deals in total for Q3 2022, a 41% drop from the previous quarter. European CyberTech companies have announced 44 seed deals in the first three quarters of 2022, which brings projections for the year to 59 deals – a 12% reduction from 2021 levels. Gyala, a cyber security solutions provider, was the largest CyberTech seed deal in Q3 2022, raising $5.1m led by CDP Venture Capital. The capital raised will be used for the implementation of the business plan, which includes increasing the team’s headcount especially in research and development, as well as supporting major investments in marketing to strengthen the company’s market presence. Gyala provides a risk management tool, Agger, which offers the ability to perform incident management based on risk analysis. Agger’s risk management tool is delivered as a complete virtual machine. Read more
Funding For Europe’s Startups Stalls As Its Tech Industry Slows Down (Forbes)
Want to make sense of 2022, but don’t have much time? Or simply want to start with the top-line view? The State of European Fintech Report painstakingly whittled down the most fundamental and useful findings of the year. Europe’s startups smashed fundraising records last year as investors crowded in to back what could become the next Spotify, UiPath or Adyen. The war in Ukraine and rising interest rates seem to have ended the party for now with investment in the continent’s startups forecast to fall by 15% to $85 billion this year. The funding slowdown and selloff of publicly traded tech stocks has also hit the valuations of Europe’s unicorns. At least 45 startups were “dehorned” after slipping below a $1 billion valuation, according to venture capital firm Atomico’s annual State of Europe report. Despite this pullback, investment in European startups is still more than double the $38.8 billion committed in 2020. “As the European ecosystem matures, we’re naturally going to see ebbs and flows, but we shouldn’t discount our overall progress on the basis of macro conditions that are impacting every sector worldwide,” says Sarah Guemouri, principal at Atomico and coauthor of the report. Read more
Banking in the new normal – foundations for customer lifecycle intelligence-led banking transformation (Fintech Futures)
More than two-thirds of banks believe they will lose market share within two years if they don’t make significant digital progress. 58% say they will cease to exist completely in the next five to ten years if they don’t change their business model, and 74% say that technology giants such as Amazon or Google will hold the largest market share of the banking industry within the next five years. FullCircl explores what “banking in the new normal” looks like. What will make the biggest difference when it comes to how banks engage with and support customers? How can they simultaneously reduce cost to serve, manage risk, and grow their own economic performance? Through working with senior representatives from 40% of the UK’s top financial institutions and seven of the top ten UK banks, FullCircl has uncovered two principal drivers that will distinguish banks that survive and thrive, and those that will be left behind as the pressure mounts to increase the pace of change and deliver impactful future-proof results. Read more
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