Women now account for 18% [1] of all C-suite positions in financial services industries globally. The study further highlights the multiplier effect impact showing that for each woman added to the C-suite, there is a positive and quantifiable impact [2] on the number of women in senior leadership positions just below the C-suite across regions. This underscores the importance of dismantling the glass ceiling and paving the way for greater gender inclusivity.
The financial services industry has made several strides to fast-track inclusion, champion women and remains committed to being a driver of change. 2025’s International Women’s Day theme #AcclerateAction is a call to emphasise the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality and address systemic barriers and biases that women face.
As part of this IWD 2025 spotlight, The Digital Banker and Global Private Banker aim to recognize senior women leaders from across the world who are accelerating action and making significant contributions toward a more gender-inclusive world.
Today we put the spotlight on Teresa Zamarriego, Head of Mobile for Business Banking at Santander UK. She joined the Bank in 2019 and has since led key initiatives at Santander UK including its former Personal Banking mobile app and defining a new PFM product proposition. Most recently she led the Conversational Banking initiative which was powered through virtual assistants. She has vast experience in Digital Transformation across the banking industry.
What are some of the milestone and highlights of your journey that have defined your career and helped you become the leader you are today?
I would say continuous growth by “being comfortable with feeling uncomfortable”. While it can seem contradictory, for me it’s about having a mindset where difficult or challenging situations become opportunities to constantly learn, evolve, gain new skills, and think about how situations can be faced differently going forward.
I believe it’s important to do a constant exercise of reflecting how we impact the people around us. From my career’s perspective, it has been crucial to have leaders who gave me the space to make mistakes, learn from them, grow and gain confidence to push for more.
Can you share some of the biggest challenges you faced in your journey and how you overcame them?
I believe the inflection point for me was when I was asked to lead the former personal mobile banking app. This meant being responsible for the bank’s main digital channel used by millions of customers and was a challenge I took up.
Having good leaders made me realise I had the right support network that I could go to for advice, guidance and exchange views with. This truly helped me gain the confidence to lead a big team and deliver good outcomes for our customers – and understand that it’s OK to ask for help!
What are some of the projects and initiatives you have championed to #AccelerateAction for your women colleagues while also driving inclusion and innovation across the bank?
I think it’s interesting to reflect on this from two angles. Firstly, the responsibility we have in ensuring we continue building accessible solutions that consider our customers unique needs, and secondly, how we create safe environments for teams and colleagues to speak up and share their diverse views while feeling valued, and confident. Not every person responds in the same way, so it’s really important to create personalised frameworks for talent to grow.
Santander UK has fantastic initiatives championing Women in Business, Women in STEM, mentoring programmes for business owners and female entrepreneurs, led by amazing people who are working hard at expanding these networks.
Speaking of #AccelerateAction and innovating for the future, how do you see women playing a key role in these areas?
I think women are already playing a fundamental part in this – if we look around and see how many initiatives women are leading – communities being created to support and mentor, events and activities to connect and build networks where people gather to share ideas and debate, the amount of new businesses being founded by women, the number of initiatives that aim to create a positive social impact – it is all happening, and I am certain this is just the start.
Speaking in general terms, women tend to be creative, resourceful, and not scared of addressing the ‘elephant in the room.’ These qualities put together are the perfect combination to inspire innovative ways of doing things differently.
Talk to us about the about how technology can play a pivotal role in driving inclusion, driving broader organisational and societal shifts? What role will emerging technologies play in these shifts?
This is such an interesting and important topic.
There has been a shift in recent years in how banking is becoming more accessible and increasing efforts in closing the gap on financial literacy – from the language used (leaving behind lengthy and complex terminology to describe processes and products into more approachable and clearer definitions), to initiatives that champion financial education (ensuring people get access to financing by understanding products and feel comfortable in making informed decisions on what aligns best to their unique needs and circumstances).
I think it’s an exciting moment for PFM tools in the market – how the use of predictive models can help people get a better view on organising their finances, understand their spending habits, have visibility of their cashflow, and how to plan better for the future. It will be very interesting to see how banks incorporate these propositions into their digital offering as a way to help people reach financial freedom.
What are your predictions for women in banking three years from now?
We’ve been experiencing quite an interesting moment in time, where banking and technology have been blending significantly. Now we’re seeing more women stepping into responsibility roles with profiles that have both business skills and technical awareness. I believe this, alongside an increasing trend of younger female generations choosing STEM professions to start their careers, will bring fresher perspectives and a more diverse range of skills that will with no doubt benefit the industry with new leadership styles and empower new generations to find their voice.
Footnotes:
1 & 2 Women in financial services leadership, 2023 global update
