Introducing Nicole Sandler (Head of Digital Policy at Barclays): Future of Finance 2021 Preview

The 2021 Future of Finance (FoF) Conference will be taking place online on March 6th. Bringing together the brightest minds from all across Europe and top executives from leading industry disruptors, FoF is THE premier event for financial innovation and entrepreneurship.

Hosted by 6 of the LARGEST careers societies from leading global universities, this event is proudly brought to you by UCL FinTech Society, LSE SU FinTech Society, LSE PRIS, Imperial Finance Society, Warwick Entrepreneurs Society & King's Business Club.

We are delighted to introduce one of our speakers for the FinTech Panel, Nicole Sandler. To learn more about our speaker, check out UCL Finance & Technology Review's exclusive interview with Nicole below:

Biography

Nicole Sandler is currently the Head of Digital Policy at Barclays Bank. In 2019 she earned the title of FinTech Influencer of the year, as well as, Most Influential Women in FinTech Regulation. She was also in the Top 100 Women in FinTech by Lattice80 in 2018.

1. Given your previous work experiences in law and FinTech regulation, can you tell us more about how working in the digital policy department of an Investment Bank and Retail Bank is different from working in a Law firm?

I have been fortunate to enjoy both working at a law firm and a Bank, however, for me personally I prefer working at the Bank and I prefer policy to law! There are various differences with one of the main differences being that the Bank is the ‘client’ so you will work with more stakeholders and it is important to be commercial (and not speak in legal jargon!). In a law firm you will only be involved in part of a project, but in the Bank it is from start to finish. This means that my days are consistently busy, but rarely are my days the same and as tech is ever evolving there is always something new to learn.

2. Students with a humanities/law academic background often find it difficult to break into more technology-focused roles. Can you give any advice to students who want to make the transition from a non-STEM academic degree to working roles that require heavier technology-related knowledge and skill sets?

I entered my role with Barclays through a role in Recovery and Resolution Planning and then transitioned into Fintech by assisting my then boss with preparing for a conference where Blockchain was on the agenda. A good starting point for someone wanting to get into Fintech is networking and educating yourself in this space, whether that’s through reading lots of articles and publications, speaking to friends or professional, enrolling in online courses and/or attending events. My experience shows that if you are truly interested in something and work hard, you can achieve anything. It was a journey I started without really contemplating where it would take me and I think it is important to be okay with not knowing exactly where you will end up when you start such a journey.

To learn more about innovations in the FinTech space, join the FinTech Panel (10-10:45am GMT) during the Future of Finance Conference on 6th March. The virtual conference will be streamed via UCL FinTech Society's Facebook and Youtube page.

Follow the Facebook event for updates.

Interviewed by Solomon Wong (UCL), Ella Tsang (LSE) and Shivam Bathija (LSE)

The UCL Finance and Technology Review (UCL FTR) is the official publication of the UCL FinTech Society. We aim to publish opinions from the student body and industry experts with accuracy and journalistic integrity. While every care is taken to ensure that the information posted on this publication is correct, UCL FTR can accept no liability for any consequential loss or damage arising as a result of using the information printed.