March 2023 • Topic: Driving diversity • by Yasmine Chinwala, Jennifer Barrow And Sheenam Singhal
Our sixth Annual Review monitors the progress of signatories against their Charter commitments and holds them to account against the four Charter principles. This report offers unique insight into what Charter signatory firms – from across the financial services industry – are doing to boost the proportion of women in senior ranks, who has hit and missed their targets, how they are developing diversity data and their different approaches to hybrid working. The data provides important benchmarking for signatories and non-signatories alike.
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Highlights of the review:
1.Meeting targets: A third (34%) of the 235 signatories analysed in this review have met their targets for female representation in senior management, and a further 47% that have targets with future deadlines said they are on track to meet them.
2. Bounce back from 2021: After a plateau in progress in 2021 (when the average level of female representation remained flat at 33%), signatories have recovered lost ground, reaching an average of 35% in 2022.
3. Leaders breaking through 40%: For the first time, the top quarter of firms (52) signed up to the Charter that conduct regulated financial activities have achieved at least 40% female representation in senior management. But the gap between the top and bottom quartile is getting wider, and is clearly split along sector lines – with building societies and UK banks at the top and global/ investment banks and asset managers at the bottom.
4. Fewer misses in 2022: Of the 73 signatories with a 2022 deadline, 44 hit their targets and the remaining 29 missed, down from 31 in 2021. Of the 29 that missed, 22 were close – either within five percentage points or five appointments of hitting their target.
5. Data and hybrid core to actions: The 2022 reporting shows a significant shift in how signatories are using data to monitor actions undertaken to pursue targets and to understand their impact, particularly hybrid working. Post-pandemic, 91% of signatories are exploring some form of hybrid working, and more of them are on the lookout for potential negative impacts on women.
6. Rapid expansion of diversity data: Signatories are extending diversity data collection, with 80% capturing additional diversity data about their female senior managers, up from 53% in 2020. Ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability are the most commonly collected datapoints. However, most firms are at the early stages of analysing this expanded dataset.
7. Accountable at the top table: Accountability is sitting at the highest levels of seniority, with almost all (98%) accountable executives (AE) sitting on the executive committee. AEs are taking an increasingly strategic approach, and their role is expanding by adding diversity strands and/or new topic areas, such as gender pay gap reporting and flexible working.
8. Linking to pay: More signatories are finding the link between diversity targets and pay is making a difference, with 64% reporting that they believe the link to pay has been effective, up from 53% in 2021. Having a link to pay means diversity is increasingly positioned as a business issue, rather than voluntary or owned and led by HR and D&I teams.
9. Strong ambition on targets: Half of signatories (50%) have set a target of at least 40%, corresponding with HM Treasury’s desire for alignment with the FTSE Women Leaders review, including one in six with a target of parity. Average targets rose across all signatory sectors and sizes.
10. Publishing updates: Publishing progress is the only Charter principle that has not consistently improved over the years. While 77% of signatories posted an online update on their progress by the required deadline, only 36% included the required details, and the quality and format of reporting varied significantly.
Research methodology:
This review analyses annual updates from 235 signatories that signed the Charter before September 2021, provided an annual update to HM Treasury in September 2022, and have at least 100 staff. All data has been anonymised and aggregated, and no data has been attributed without consent. The data was analysed by Sheenam Singhal and Jennifer Barrow under the supervision of Yasmine Chinwala. For full methodology, see p32 of the Appendix.
About New Financial:
New Financial is a think tank and forum that makes the positive case for bigger and better capital markets in Europe. We think there is a huge opportunity for the industry and its customers to embrace change and reform, and to rethink how capital markets work. Diversity is one of our core areas of coverage.
Acknowledgements:
New Financial would like to thank Aviva, Santander UK, London Stock Exchange Group and City of London Corporation for sponsoring our work on the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, and to all our institutional members for their support.