Circle champions women’s equality in partnership with UK Government

Today, Circle proudly stood alongside Virgin Money and Barclays as it jointly hosted the launch event of the UK HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter.

Woman in Finance Charter

The Women in Finance Charter is an empowering initiative led by HM Treasury, coined by Economic Secretary Harriett Baldwin MP, to initiate signatory firms to work together and build a more balanced, fairer industry.

Firms that sign up to the charter are pledging to showcase best business practice in the Finance sector. The charter reflects the government’s aspiration to see gender balance at all levels across financial services firms. We, alongside the UK Government, believe that a balanced workforce is good for business – it is good for customers, profitability and workplace culture, and is increasingly attractive for investors.

The Economic Secretary held the event at the Barclays accelerator in Whitechapel, London, gathering all signatories of the Charter.

Breaking boundaries

Circle is breaking boundaries in the finance sector, exploring the ways in which technology can be used to change the way we view, and use money. As a young fast-growing FinTech company, innovation is vital but so too is our passion for people. We want the right people for the job, whatever their gender.

Approximately 60% of people working in financial services are women across 20 global markets; however this figure sadly falls dramatically to 19% when looking at senior level positions. The team at Circle are proud to champion gender equality in the financial workplace, and are committed to ensuring that women are appropriately represented. We are delighted to participate in the UK Government’s ‘Women in Finance’ Charter to help drive awareness and champion both the importance and advantages of women occupying senior managerial roles in the financial service.

Our pledge to Women in Finance

In July 2016, Circle became a proud signatory of the Women in Finance Charter, led by HM Treasury. This is a pledge for gender balance across the finance sector.

Having opened in April 2016, our London office now has eight full-time employees, four women and four men with two out of the 3 female Executives at Circle, sitting in the London office.

Current state

In the finance sector, currently 14-23% of the workforce are Women whereas for Circle UK its 50%.

As part of the Women in Finance Charter, Circle pledges to invest in a balanced working environment, striving to continue the 50/50 gender split. Circle strongly believe that a balanced workforce is good for business, improving work culture, behaviour and productivity. Circle is maintaining gender diversity through the following ways:

Recruitment - Circle ensures there is female representation at every stage of of the job application process and that there is an equal representation of male and female in first rounds

Mentoring scheme - Ongoing mentoring of several young professional women within the business from Managing Director, Marieke Flament and Sharn Kaur, International Head of Compliance. Both Marieke and Sharn organise regular internal breakfast and lunch meetings to monitor internal and external mentees’ progress

Profile raising - Marieke and Sharn both frequently speak at events and conferences to raise the profile of women in the industry

Flexible working environment - Circle provide a flexible working environment for male and female employees including unlimited holidays and the option to work from home

The Charter

• commits firms to supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services sector by focusing on the executive pipeline and the mid-tier level;
• recognises the diversity of the sector and that firms will have different starting points - each firm should therefore set its own targets and implement the right strategy for their organisation;
• requires firms to publicly report on progress to deliver against these internal targets to support the transparency and accountability needed to drive change.

Circle pledges to promote gender diversity by:

• having one member of our senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion;
• setting internal targets for gender diversity in our senior management;
  publishing progress annually against these targets in reports on our website;
• having an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.

We are currently expanding Circle and are looking for energised team players to join a fun and fast-paced environment. If you’re excited about the growth of digital currency technology, take a look at our current vacancies - /careers