Do Women’s Board and Committee Roles Matter for FinTech Transparency? Evidence From Listed Banks in the United States, China, and India

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rapid digitalization of banking has intensified the need for credible disclosure about technology‐enabled financial services and their governance and risk implications. Drawing primarily on agency theory, with resource dependence theory and stakeholder theory serving complementary roles, this study examines whether women directors' board and committee roles are associated with the breadth of FinTech disclosure in listed banks in the United States, China, and India. Using an unbalanced panel of 70 listed banks during 2016–2024, the analysis applies bank and year fixed‐effects models, supplemented by feasible generalized least squares, lagged governance variables, country‐heterogeneity tests, and sample‐attrition diagnostics. FinTech transparency is measured using a validated 25‐item FinTech Disclosure Index developed from annual‐ report narratives and covering payment technologies, digital banking infrastructure, distributed technologies, artificial intelligence, big‐data applications, risk‐management technologies, and security technologies. The index measures the breadth of reported FinTech transparency rather than actual FinTech adoption, technological capability, implementation intensity, technology investment, or performance. The findings indicate that board gender diversity is role‐contingent. Women's audit committee representation shows the most consistent positive association with FinTech disclosure breadth. The predicted associations for women independent directors and remuneration committee members are not supported, while the non‐executive result is negative but model‐sensitive. The study advances a role‐contingent view of board gender diversity by showing that the governance relevance of women's representation depends on the roles they occupy, with implications for board design, digital‐governance oversight, and regulation in the sampled banking systems.