In honor of International Women’s Day, we sat down with Estephany Ley, Retail Banking Managing Director at Coppel Group, to discuss leadership, financial inclusion, and the future of financial services in Mexico.
Estephany holds a double degree in Economics and Finance from Boston University and an MBA from Dartmouth College. With 13 years of experience in financial services, she began her career as an analyst at Credit Suisse in Singapore before moving to Europe. After her MBA, she joined Grupo Coppel, initially leading the internal consulting unit and later moving into corporate development, where she founded the CVC arm. After serving as Product Director, she assumed her current role as Managing Director of Retail Banking.
Today, she oversees consumer financial services, 1,300+ banking operations, digital channels, marketing, and business intelligence.
The Interview
1. In the context of International Women’s Day, what does it mean to lead retail banking in a country where the mass market is the economic engine?
For me, it means working exactly where a country’s economy actually happens: in the daily lives of millions. In the mass market, financial services aren’t a luxury or a sophisticated optimization tool; they are essential instruments that allow people to manage emergencies, maintain household stability, or access the capital needed to keep moving forward. That is the true power of retail banking. Financial inclusion isn’t just a statistic—it’s the difference between having options or being stranded when life gets complicated.
2. Throughout your career, you’ve driven growth, digital transformation, and inclusion. At what point did you feel your leadership began to impact lives beyond the bottom line?
It was the moment I realized that credit is not just a financial product, but a tool for resilience. When you hear stories of clients who were able to face a medical emergency, stabilize their family finances, or access working capital for their small business, you realize the impact goes far beyond financial indicators. You understand that the financial system can be a mechanism for social mobility. Well-designed credit doesn’t just finance consumption; it finances resilience.
3. Many women aspire to lead in male-dominated sectors. What mindset was key to your journey?
The mindset of not waiting until I felt “perfectly prepared.” Many women feel they need to meet 100% of the requirements before taking on a challenge. In my experience, growth happens when you dare to take on big responsibilities while you are still learning. Leadership is built with discipline, consistency, and the ability to keep going even when the path isn’t clear. Careers are built more on perseverance than on moments of perfection.
4. What has been your biggest takeaway from designing products for historically underserved populations?
That financial inclusion starts with listening. For a long time, the financial system designed products based on how banks operate, not how people live. When you understand the client’s reality—variable income, informality, family responsibilities—you realize that simplicity, flexibility, and trust are just as important as any financial variable. Inclusion begins when we stop designing for banks and start designing for people.
5. Women are often the most reliable payers but face the most barriers. What structural change is urgently needed?
The financial system still measures risk using tools that don’t always reflect the economic reality of many women. Interrupted career paths, informal economies, or family caregiving duties often don’t translate well into traditional credit models. Today, technology allows us to build much smarter, fairer assessments. Women don’t need “easier” credit; they need systems that better understand their economic reality.
6. How can financial education drive real social mobility?
Financial education doesn’t work when it’s abstract. It works when it’s tied to real decisions: how to use credit, how to build a history, how to plan a major expense, or how to start saving. When people understand the impact of those decisions on their daily lives, knowledge turns into behavioral change.
7. How do you see the evolution of embedded finance in Mexico over the next five years?
Mexico has enormous potential because so many economic interactions happen outside traditional banking channels. The future will be increasingly contextual: financial services will be integrated into the moments where people actually need them. However, that integration carries a huge responsibility to avoid predatory debt cycles. The future of finance isn’t more visible; it’s more contextual.
8. What is the difference between embedding a loan and designing a financial experience?
Embedding a loan is a transaction. Designing a financial experience is accompanying the customer’s life cycle. It means understanding how they earn money, how they manage their budget, how they face the unexpected, and how they build wealth over time. When you do that, financial services stop being isolated products and become tools for progress. The best financial solutions don’t happen in a single transaction; they happen throughout a relationship.
9. As finance becomes “invisible,” what is the responsibility of banks?
The more invisible finance becomes, the more important the ethics of those who design it become. Technology can make credit more accessible, but our responsibility is to ensure it is also more responsible. Financial innovation should generate well-being, not dependency. True innovation isn’t making credit easier; it’s making it more responsible.
10. How do you build a culture that is technologically advanced yet human-centric?
Technology can process data, but it cannot replace human judgment. At BanCoppel, we use technology to better understand our customers, reduce friction, and improve decision-making. But we always remember that behind every data point is a person. Technology should amplify human talent, not replace it. AI can analyze data, but empathy remains human.
11. What skills should women aspiring to lead in Fintech cultivate?
First, intellectual curiosity. The financial world is changing too fast to ever stop learning. Second, strategic thinking to connect technology, business, and social impact. And third, the confidence to take on big challenges even when the roadmap isn’t fully defined. Women shouldn’t just participate in the financial transformation—they should lead it.
12. Looking toward 2030, how would you like your generation’s role to be remembered?
I’d like us to be remembered as the generation that expanded opportunities. A generation that helped build a financial system that is more accessible, more human, and smarter. We proved that leadership can be ambitious, demanding, and strategic, while also being deeply committed to people’s well-being. Our true legacy will be having expanded the economic possibilities for millions of people.