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The tremendous contribution of women to the payments industry is phenomenal. Women continue to challenge the norms and venture into what were previously considered male-dominated industries. The average number of women working in FinTech is still low compared to men, but there have been amazing improvements in the past years.
This brings the importance of creating a network that provides the opportunity for women working within the industry to network, share and inspire each other while at the same time recognising the women who have continuously contributed to the industry for years.
European Women Payments Network (EWPN) is a community that inspires, empowers and mentors women in payments to help them realise their full individual potential and position themselves for greater personal success while continuing to learn and contribute to the payments and fintech industries. Our events and workshops offer an opportunity to the women to listen to renowned and upcoming female payments experts and role models who are leaders in the field; female pioneers and innovators in the payments industry and female leaders who are paving the way to success for women across all sectors. By creating a European wide network, EWPN opens doors of opportunities to women within the EU/EEA Region.
From the founder
Martha Mghendi-Fisher
“The payments industry is a fascinating industry that continues to grow at such a tremendous pace. Even though there are many women working in this industry, there is no Pan-European platform created solely to celebrate and recognise women contributing to the industry. There is also no platform that offers that intimate woman-to-woman networking day where women could connect, learn, share and celebrate each other.
We do business cross-border; we shop across continents; we are living in a global village; yet we still have our own little corners where we feel more comfortable in. We are women in the industry, facing the same challenges across the border regardless of which part of the world we are located. The challenges might slightly differ, but they are very similar in so many aspects. We ask ourselves over and over again: where are the women in the top layer of the financial industry? Why are we not fully represented? Why are we getting stuck somewhere in between? What is holding us back? But then we still go back to our own local chapters and try to solve global issues instead of talking to each other on a global level. I want to go down to the root cause and try to figure out why we are so underrepresented.
I longed to have a platform where women within the industry can freely converse, forget about the level of career they are and just have a heart-to-heart conversation while we figure out how women who have been lucky to get to the top can nurture other talented women starting up or stuck somewhere in between. This is something that I personally missed after years of working in the payments industry. So I thought, why not create the platform myself? Therefore EWPN was born in 2015! Until we realise that we are stronger together instead of handling the challenges in smaller groups; we shall continue to be underrepresented. We transact cross-border, let’s converse cross-border as well!”
Martha Mghendi-Fisher brings on board years of experience in merchant acquiring, e-commerce, card-present, processing and payments in general, having worked first for a processor and currently for an acquiring bank.