62% of Women in Finance Charter firms now taking specific action

Over two-thirds of finance firms believe that signing up to the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter will lead to permanent and sustainable change in gender diversity at senior levels across the industry.

Related topics:  Finance News
Rozi Jones
10th July 2017
Jayne-Anne Gadhia Virgin Money
"Firms are waking up to the fact that promoting more women into senior roles is not only the right thing to do, but will also improve their overall business performance."

According to new research, conducted by think tank New Financial, 62% of firms have taken specific action to support female career progression since signing up to the Charter, including succession planning, examining hiring practices and unconscious bias training.

Over a quarter of the signatory firms who have published their diversity targets are committed to a 50/50 gender split in senior roles, and have set a date to achieve that target.

Data also shows that the Charter is also paving the way for firms to improve on other types of diversity.

Over two-thirds of signatories either have used, or are considering using, the Charter as a blueprint to improve the representation of other diversity characteristics in their firms, such as ethnicity and sexual orientation, with PWC claiming that the Charter is already driving stronger executive accountability for both their gender and ethnicity targets.

This data comes as a further 25 firms - including AXA, Citi, KPMG and Post Office - sign up to the Women in Finance Charter, bringing the total number of firms involved to 141.

The new signatories mean that over 560,000 people are now covered by the Charter – equal to over half of the employees in the financial services sector.

The Economic Secretary, Stephen Barclay, commented: "For too long many women in finance have been underpaid, underrepresented and undervalued compared to men and it’s great to see the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter making a tangible difference in the banking sector.

"Firms are waking up to the fact that promoting more women into senior roles is not only the right thing to do, but will also improve their overall business performance. Diversity of thought at the top is crucial in keeping the financial sector at the cutting edge."

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money and government’s Women in Finance Champion, said: "I’m delighted to see such strong progress being made by the financial services sector. Embracing diversity not only improves productivity and business performance, it is quite simply the right thing to do."

Yasmine Chinwala, partner at New Financial and author of the report, added: "The survey data clearly shows that the Charter is already beginning to make an impact on financial services at both company and industry level, and not only for female representation but diversity as a whole. The big challenge ahead will be making sure diversity stays on the business agenda."

More like this
Latest from Property Reporter
Latest from Protection Reporter
CLOSE
Subscribe
to our newsletter

Join a community of over 30,000 intermediaries and keep up-to-date with industry news and upcoming events via our newsletter.