Market Financial Solutions (MFS) has marked its team growing to over 100 employees by celebrating the diversity within the business.

The specialist lender, which recently hired its 100th employee, surveyed staff to get a fuller picture of how it was faring when it comes to diversity and inclusivity.

The data shows that 44% of MFS’s current employees represent as female and 56% as male.

38% of the MFS team describe themselves as English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British. A further 18% are Indian, with a wide range of other nationalities and ethnicities – from Chinese to Pakistani, Lithuanian to Polish – making up the remaining 44%.

Six different religions are followed across the MFS workforce: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. 48% say they are an atheist.

The lender’s employees speak more than 20 languages between them, including French, Latvian, Portuguese, Greek, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Romanian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Farsi, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi and German. The majority (52%) of the MFS team speaks multiple languages.

MFS says it has taken various steps to improve its diversity and inclusivity. It celebrates a wide range of religious festivals, both internally through social events and gifts, and across social media. Employees are encouraged to share and celebrate religious and cultural events that are important to them.

Team socials are inclusive, with all food and drink preferences catered for. However, social events are never compulsory, allowing people to choose based on their interests, tastes and beliefs.

MFS has also invested in creating videos about the importance of having an inclusive workplace in a bid to ensure people from all backgrounds are inspired to apply for roles in the company.

Tiba Raja, executive director at MFS, said: “Diversity and inclusivity is a hugely important topic that all employers must grapple with. While we have always believed our team to be diverse and our culture inclusive, conducting regular internal studies helps us track progress and expose areas that we can improve upon.

“It is wonderful to see what a broad range of people make up the MFS family. Not only are we close to achieving a perfect gender balance – including at board level – but there is a vast number of religions celebrated, languages spoken and nationalities on display. Fundamentally, we believe passionately that this makes MFS a better place to work and build a career, but we also feel our client’s benefit.

“Diversity brings with it fresh perspectives and experiences. That is invaluable because, as a specialist lender, we are essentially problem-solving on a day-to-day basis – the strength and breadth of our team better equips us to find solutions and work with a multitude of clients, themselves from greatly varied backgrounds.”