ClearBank partners with Code First Girls to close FinTech gender gap

By Gloria Methri

ClearBank, the cloud-based banking platform, has announced a new drive to actively recruit female coders through its partnership with Code First Girls. The provider of free coding courses for women in the UK, Code First Girls not only educates but also works with 100+ partners globally to recruit women in tech roles.

The benefits of actively recruiting women from non-technical backgrounds include creative problem-solving for security threats, performance improvements, and innovation across all sectors.

ClearBank joins 30 other FinTechs and financial service companies, including Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America, in partnering with Code First Girls. The financial sector is the largest and fastest growing proportion of Code First Girls’ client list, as FinTech and traditional banks are keen to hire more women.

In 2022, Code First Girls says it provided 44,861 opportunities for women to learn how to code, compared to just 6,450 women who acquired undergraduate computing degrees in the UK that year.

Anna Brailsford, CEO of Code First Girls, said, “It is fantastic to partner with ClearBank to support more women in the FinTech industry and to help them recruit female coders into their team. There is currently a worrying gender gap, with many women facing significant barriers to entering STEM careers, starting at school and continuing throughout their lives.”

“Varied and diverse experiences and skills will only make both the tech and finance industries stronger, bringing huge opportunities to businesses as well as the individuals themselves.”

Tom Harris, Chief Technology Officer at ClearBank added, “As a business focused on driving transformation in the financial services industry, diversity in its many forms is vital to us and ClearBank is committed to championing it. We are thrilled to be partnering with Code First Girls on this initiative, helping to get more women and non-binary people into technology roles at ClearBank.”