Tech-facilitated abuse continues to grow as a dangerous part of gender based violence. This includes everyday financial products and services being weaponised by perpetrators to inflict harassment, terror and surveillance on their victims.

One person who has been instrumental in examining the extent of the issue and how common services and products can do more to address this type of abuse, is Catherine Fitzpatrick

She is a leading expert on disrupting financial abuse and gender biases through more innovative product and service design.

And she joins the podcast for a fascinating but at times disturbing discussion on how this type of abuse is occurring, its prevalence, but then optimistically, the empowering actions both consumers and businesses can deploy to help stop it.

Catherine has been leading industry-wide reforms. She’s advised the government on financial abuse policy and pioneered the financial safety by design framework, which is helping leading brands protect customers, manage risk and strengthen trust.

She uncovered widespread abuse in online banking transactions while working as a banking executive in 2019, which led to her spearheading whole industry reforms to crack down on the practice.

Catherine recorded this conversation with Women's Agenda on the 3rd December. And there’s much to learn, not just about how businesses and consumers can respond to the weaponisation of products and services, but also how she channelled a significant career curveball into a clear mission that is having real results.

You can learn more about Catherine here.

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