Newport’s Target Group celebrates record gender pay gap milestone

FinTech Wales member Target Group has announced record progress in closing its gender pay gap.

The Newport-based business said its mean gender pay gap has reduced again and now stands at 18.34% — the lowest it has ever reported. This is down from 19.58% last year and significantly lower than almost two years ago, when the gender pay gap was around 29%.

According to Target, this progress is ahead of the broader UK finance and insurance sectors, which continue to have one of the largest gender pay gaps, averaging 27% to 30%. This means women earn roughly 78p for every £1 earned by a man.

Alongside progress on gender pay parity, Target has also continued to increase representation across the business. Today, 42% of senior leaders are women, up from 30% in 2020. The company also reported that women accounted for 65% of all internal promotions at Target in 2025.

Target said work continues across the business to support gender pay parity and equality, including increasing engagement in women’s networks and the continued growth of mentoring and development programmes. The focus, it said, is on building confidence, capability and visibility in all areas of the organisation.

The company added that it continues to make progress in its ambition to reduce the gender pay gap year on year, with a view to closing it by 2030.

Melanie Spencer, Growth Director at Target, said: “Across Target, tremendous progress continues to be made in improving representation, progression and opportunity. Closing the gender pay gap to a record low is real proof of this. Our longevity and success as a business and our longstanding partnerships with major financial institutions is undoubtedly down to the skills and expertise of our talented team.

“Our ability to deliver the cutting-edge capabilities and high levels of service we are known for relies on us attracting and retaining great talent, which is why it is so important that we continue to recognise and reward all employees fairly.”

Gareth Roach, Chief People Officer at Target, added: “Over the last couple of years, we’ve focused on building balanced teams at every level of the business rather than chasing quick wins. The consistent reduction in the pay gap over three reporting cycles shows this long-term approach is clearly working. While we are really proud of how far we have come, we know there’s still more we want to achieve.

“We have very clear priorities to expand development, mentoring and leadership opportunities for women, while continuing to strengthen our inclusive hiring and promotion practices. We want to continue building a supportive and flexible culture for everyone – setting clear goals and staying transparent about our progress. The success we are seeing in closing the gender pay gap is down to the effort and commitment of teams right across Target, and I thank everyone.”

Target has been operating across banking, financial services and insurance for more than four decades, specialising in mortgage and loan originations, savings and investments, payments, collections and in-life servicing. The company works with major financial institutions as a provider of business process servicing, as well as through its own proprietary software solutions.

With the help of its fintech platform, Target manages assets of more than £17 billion, enabling clients to automate complex critical processing, servicing and administration of loans and investments.