How CTOs In Financial Services Can Help Avoid Embedded Biases

Innovation How CTOs In Financial Services Can Help Avoid Embedded Biases Ravi Metta Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Aug 22, 2022, 07:00am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Ravi Metta, Chief Technology Officer at Finastra .

getty From consumer payment apps to institutional banking platforms, the financial services industry has undergone a sweeping digital transformation. Looking to the future, technology will be key to driving optimization across the global financial system. However, as this industry continues to innovate, its leaders must also recognize that much of the technology being developed today draws heavily on historical financial data and patterns, exposing gaps that could allow racial and gender biases to permeate our financial system.

Algorithmic biases can be found , for example, in data samples that do not accurately represent the makeup of the population, which could significantly impact the decision-making process around credit scoring, rate-setting and insurance pricing—all of which can heavily impact an individual’s financial wellness. In my role as chief technology officer at a large fintech, I believe that it is critical to find opportunities to employ our resources to help correct some of these enduring inequities. In this article, I walk through some of my key considerations and strategies for leveraging technology to catalyze diversity and inclusion goals and help correct inequalities in our financial system.

Identifying Embedded Bias And Building Teams To Combat It The first step toward enacting change is recognizing that it’s needed. To that end, technology leaders, particularly in the financial services space, should analyze closely how historical inequities may be persisting in their industry—and how their own companies may have come into contact with them. From there, they should kickstart and actively engage in discussions at the highest level to ensure this is a priority for the organization.

MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event As a part of the initial analysis process, it is important for leaders to acknowledge that one cause of the bias within technology solutions is the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in STEM fields. According to Pew Research Center, Black and Hispanic adults are underrepresented as STEM workers relative to their respective shares of the population. Hispanic workers make up 17% of the American workforce but hold only 8% of STEM jobs.

Black workers comprise 11% of the employed population and 9% of the STEM workforce. When it comes to gender equality, the STEM professions reflect significantly more progress: 50% of those employed in STEM jobs are women, despite women making up a slightly smaller total percentage of the workforce (47%). However, it should be noted that women are overrepresented in the STEM categories that include health-related jobs and underrepresented in fields like computing and engineering.

Our voices can play a crucial role in advocating for the removal of barriers that people of diverse backgrounds face in participating in innovation and technology. Incorporating diverse perspectives and experiences into the innovation process is critical to eradicating bias in technology solutions. By reinforcing the importance of initiatives that actively include problem-solvers from diverse backgrounds, we are taking actionable steps to ensure diversity as part of our corporate framework.

Promoting Initiatives That Amplify Diverse Voices And Lead To Inclusive Solutions Achieving more equal representation for diverse groups in the tech and finance industries isn’t a goal that can be achieved overnight. To make progress toward that goal in the near term, tech leaders can propose initiatives that champion inclusivity by creating spaces and platforms for diverse voices to bring their experiences into the innovation process. For example, at my company, our global hackathon competitions encourage hackers from all walks of life—developers, designers, business experts and students—to create solutions to help achieve an unbiased fintech future.

Hackathons with inclusivity goals are just one example of the kind of corporate initiative that can inspire diverse groups and younger generations to innovate toward a more inclusive financial future. Companies can also adopt strategies to help cultivate more tech expertise and innovative thinking within their workforce, with a particular focus on engaging diverse talent. Learning and development curriculum and training programs are all effective offerings to give current employees the tools to build tech expertise and become engaged in product development.

In addition to these strategies to unlock opportunities for current talent, it’s equally important to consider diversity in hiring and recruiting processes. Companies can take an intentional approach to build diverse tech teams by engaging recruiters that specialize in diverse candidates and partnering with minority professional associations or universities. Internships geared toward diverse candidates are also important programs to fuel a diverse talent pipeline.

Conclusion Fintech is rooted in the idea of progress and improving inefficiencies that can, in turn, help address historical inequities. As technology and innovation leaders, we should be at the forefront of ensuring our technology supports diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work. All financial technology firms have a role to play in building a more sustainable, inclusive financial ecosystem, from building diverse teams to championing events that action a company’s commitment to inclusion.

As technology leaders, we can be powerful forces for change to foster greater attention to DEI by taking an active approach when thinking about the make-up of our teams and the voices we’re including during the innovation process. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn .

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