The road to financial equality
Özge Özen Zink is Partnership Manager for Entrepreneurs at SEB. She sees herself as an intrapreneur at SEB and an ambassador on social media with a decisive role to drive change and innovative thinking.
We ran three quick questions past Özge to find out how SEB works with financial equality, how she in her role is involved and exerts an influence and what are the most important factors for contributing to a more equal economy in society.
How does SEB work to encourage financial equality?
– Through an entrepreneurial spirit! Capital is the core of our business and to own, invest and dare to take risks is to have freedom. SEB has been supporting entrepreneurship in society and business for 165 years among other things in our societal investments and sponsoring where we focus on sustainability, inclusion and diversity as well as entrepreneurship. By providing education and advice on ownership, income and savings, we can create the conditions for achieving financial equality.
– The issues of equality, inclusion and diversity are pursued in debates during the Almedalen week, SEB Talks and SEB Innovation Forum. These issues are also pursued through collaboration in our Entrepreneurial Ladder as Young Enterprise, Prince Daniel’s Fellowship, Årets Nybyggare and YEoS (Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden). SEB also has sustainability collaboration with Ownershift to create equal opportunities for financial autonomy and increased ownership for women. SEB is a founder member of ‘Start Smart Women’, a start-up programme that helps young girls to get started with their savings.
– We also have a business network for women entrepreneurs at SEB, “Klubben”, where we can be inspired by each other and where we as a bank with the knowledge base that we have can be a proactive banking partner in all the life events of an entrepreneur, both private and corporate.
How can you exert an influence in your role as Business Manager?
– In my customer meetings as part of my daily work. There I talk about ownership, savings, investments, family and tax law, pensions, starting your own business and running a growing company. Through these meetings I can influence financial equality in society. My broad knowledge of financial markets, inclusion and diversity means that I can lead my customers in the right direction in their financial needs and make suggestions for solutions for secure growth.
– I believe in the power of safeguarding and disseminating values about equality together.
In the big picture, what do you believe are the key parameters for contributing to a more equal economy?
– Education! An obvious thing is to provide education within everyday economics already in primary school and all the way to working life. As a company and financial institution, I feel that SEB plays a significant role in creating financial equality. This is achieved, for example, through transparency and clarity when setting salaries and in career development, equal pay for equal work and opportunities for both sexes to advance in their careers. By recruiting diversified personalities with varied professional backgrounds and education, but also differences in terms of age, gender, geographical background, sexual orientation and functional variation.