Features

Kakaobank did not exist four years ago. Now, it is an integral part of Korea’s banking sector. The next big step for the digital dynamo is its $3 billion IPO, slated for late 2021.

Lisa Robins is one of the most senior women in banking in Asia, a rare example of a global business head for a multinational bank being based in the region.

South Asia is in some ways a better place for women bankers than almost anywhere else in the region. But there are still serious problems.

Private banking and wealth management, where it is common for the majority of the workforce to be women, is the only area of banking with anything like equality of representation. But women are often in junior relationship manager positions and thin out at the higher levels of management. Those women who have reached the top explain why their corner of the industry looks different to the rest and what can be done to make it better.

It was Chairman Mao who said Chinese women should play an equal role, working in the fields and factories: decades later, women are evident in the upper ranks of the financial sector, but seldom make it to the very top.

Sexism, gruelling hours and a drinking culture are among the hurdles that senior female investment bankers in Asia have had to clear. The barriers are starting to come down – but not fast enough.

Japan’s banking system is a tough place to work for ambitious women. But Kathy Matsui shows it is possible to rise to the top.

Angel Ng has spent more than two decades working at Citi. She has now become a key role model for women in Hong Kong.

Banks in Singapore have produced just a handful of women trailblazers in technology and artificial intelligence; can government incentives change the gender balance?