Last year, the government asked Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money, to lead a review into the representation of women in senior managerial roles in financial services. Jayne-Anne’s review looked at the issue of unequal gender representation in the financial services sector, particularly at senior levels, and made the following recommendations:

  • firms should have one member of the senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion;
  • firms should set internal targets for gender diversity in senior management;
  • firms should publish progress annually against these targets in reports on their website; and
  • firms should have an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.

HM Treasury subsequently launched the Women in Finance Charter, and has now published high level guidance in an attempt to encourage more firms to commit to these recommendations.

The Charter is aimed at all financial services firms with significant operations in the UK but is primarily aimed at firms with over 250 employees. On 11 July 2016, HM Treasury announced that 72 firms had signed up so far. These firms employ over 530,000 people in the UK.

The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/541401/hmt_women_in_finance_charter_guidance.pdf

The Charter comes at a time when gender inequality in the workplace is high on the agenda. Look out for our updates on the gender pay gap reporting requirements that are due to come into effect from October 2016.

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