Mirela Ciobanu
Lead Editor at The Paypers
Mirela, your career path took you from teaching and customer-facing roles to leading editorial work at The Paypers. What first drew you into banking, fintech, and digital assets, and what convinced you to specialise in this space?
I’ve always been in love with words and writing; one of my favourite quotes is that with words you can dominate the world. Naturally, I looked for a career in journalism, but, of course, that path comes with hurdles, so I began as a teacher and in customer support. Those roles taught me to focus on audience needs, understand diverse backgrounds, communicate empathetically, and be there to help.
One day, I went for an interview with The Paypers—and stayed. Back then, I didn’t know much about payments; I thought you just tap a card on a POS terminal and voilà. I started writing news about mobile payments and gradually learned how payments really work. Curious and passionate about investigation, I moved into topics like payment fraud and compliance. It was fascinating to discover that crime doesn’t always involve a dark basement or a man in a hoodie; it can operate like a business, with employees, salaries, and infrastructure.
Later, as many of these nefarious activities were connected to crypto, I started exploring that space too. I realised that crypto is about much more than speculation; it’s a movement advocating for decentralisation, transparency, and making payments faster, cheaper, and more inclusive.
What really convinced me to stay, though, are the people. Fintech enthusiasts are friendly, curious, and daring—whether developing an app for investing or creating innovative solutions for lending to SMEs in emerging markets. They work hard, innovate, and have fun. I love attending Money20/20 Europe every year, chatting, laughing, and taking selfies with them.
Over the past nine years, I’ve met some of the most inspiring individuals, including Carl Bernstein, Steve Wozniak, and Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier behind the Panama Papers. These experiences convinced me to continue in the financial industry as a voice and connector, helping audiences understand financial concepts, solutions, technologies, and AI applications, while always telling the true story.
You’ve had such a diverse path, and meeting inspiring people has shaped you as a connector. Mirela, you often cover complex areas such as security, user experience, and payment infrastructure—fields still largely male-dominated. Have you encountered inequality, and what advice would you offer to women aspiring to build a career here?
Indeed, I love networking in our industry, and one thing that struck me early on is how many men there are. A few years ago, I joined the Rise Up programme and was moved by the stories women shared: being passed over for promotions in favour of men, denied extended maternity leave, or struggling to balance personal and professional life.
Rise Up is a global initiative promoting diversity in the financial ecosystem, empowering women and non-binary individuals with the tools, training, and networks to advance their careers. It provides mentorship, executive coaching, and a community that helps participants reach new heights. With programmes like Rise Up and organisations such as the European Women in Payments Network, change is happening: men are becoming allies, and women feel more empowered.
From my experience, empowered women share common traits. My advice is to have a clear goal, stay disciplined, and don’t get discouraged. When challenges arise, learn from them, think creatively, and adapt. Being part of a supportive group or having a mentor is crucial, because going it alone is hard. Above all, breathe and accept yourself—you are your most important ally on this growth journey.
The stories you heard through Rise Up show just how complex these challenges are. When you cover topics like CBDCs or digital identity, you’re shaping how the industry imagines its future. Do women bring a different lens to these debates—one that changes what “trust” or “inclusion” really means?
Absolutely. It’s crucial that women, along with other vulnerable groups such as children, seniors, and people with disabilities, are involved in developing inclusive digital identities and financial systems. Women often notice the details that make these systems work and prevent errors.
Identity systems have failed before due to biased design and testing favouring white male populations. In 2018, MIT Media Lab’s Gender Shades project found commercial facial-recognition systems misclassified up to 34.7% of dark-skinned women, compared with under 1% of light-skinned men. Similarly, automated passport control systems in the US and Europe more often misread or rejected IDs for people with darker skin tones or non-Western features. These failures show how built-in assumptions can create real-world inequities.
Including women in the financial system is transformative. In India, the Jan Dhan Yojana program enabled millions of women to open bank accounts, giving them access to savings, credit, and government transfers. Rural women use these accounts to manage household expenses, fund education, and start small businesses. Microfinance initiatives from SEWA and Bandhan Bank also help women buy livestock or launch home-based enterprises. Because women tend to prioritise family welfare, empowering them financially amplifies social and economic benefits across communities.
Exactly, these examples clearly show how inclusion shapes whether systems work for everyone. Since you often speak and moderate panels at major fintech events, how has the visibility of women experts on stage evolved, and what still needs to change to ensure their voices are heard equally?
Women are more visible than five years ago, I feel. Recently, I had a deep dive with Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly, co-founder of EWPN, and Merima Mahmutovic, Senior Manager at PwC, discussing women in fintech and their unique strengths. The audience loved it!
However, women still need to be featured as a top topic, not just celebrated on International Women’s Day or included in leadership groups to meet quotas. Visibility must come from central, ongoing recognition of their expertise.
Looking back at your career, have you had female mentors or role models who shaped your path? And what do you think can be done to strengthen mentorship opportunities for women entering fintech today?
My biggest role model is my mother: strong, resilient, optimistic, hardworking, devoted, and always smiling. Several other women also fuelled my ambition in journalism, teaching me to learn from every experience, stay disciplined, and speak my mind.
Mentorship requires chemistry between people to truly bear fruit. It can be hard to find the right mentor, especially at events or large gatherings, where junior women may lack the approval or budget to attend. I believe mentorship needs support from leadership: inspiring, ambitious women paired with leaders who want to foster inclusivity is a win-win for both sides.
Thank you for sharing such pragmatic insights throughout our talk! To wrap up, how do you think women can shape fintech, finance, and Web3 in the year ahead?
Be more vocal, trust your work, stay up to date with trends, developments, and geopolitics. Don’t get caught up in over-boosting productivity or blindly using AI; allow time to think for yourself and stay present. Both men and women often miss opportunities because they focus on the past or the future.
Now is our time to shine and shape Web3.
