HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter – Annual Review 2024

Our eighth 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 companies are executing the Charter principles and where they will need to maintain focus. The data provides important benchmarking for signatories and non-signatories alike.

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Highlights of the review:

1. Meeting targets: More than a third (36%) of the 205 signatories analysed in this review have met their targets for female representation in senior management, and a further 44% that have targets with future deadlines said they are on track to meet them.

   
   

2. Steady uptick with an eye on 40%: Average female representation in senior management edged up from 35% in 2023 to 36% in 2024, in line with the usual one percentage point annual rise since the launch of the Charter. Signatory targets remain ambitious, with more than half (55%) setting a target of at least 40%.

   
   

3. Hit and miss in 2024: Target deadlines loomed for 60 signatories, with 40 hitting their targets while the remaining 20 missed. Of the 20 that missed, 13 were very close – within just five appointments of hitting their target.

   
   

4. A crunch year ahead for the Charter: 2025 will be the Charter’s biggest year yet as 96 signatories – nearly half of the cohort – approach their deadlines. Our analysis predicts more than half (56%) should hit their targets.

   
   

5. UK banks and insurers lead the way: Of the four largest signatory sector groups, the UK banks and insurers are still leading, despite a flat 2024. Although the four sectors have moved at a similar pace over the past seven years, the UK banks and insurers were in a better position in 2018 and have maintained their advantage over the investment managers and global / investment banks.

   
   

6. Shift in actions focus to acceleration: While actions related to recruitment are still most frequently mentioned, 82% of signatories are increasingly focused on retention, behaviour and culture, and embedding D&I into business. Our new analysis zooms in on the four key areas that the data has shown to accelerate the pace of change: taking a data-led approach, being strategic, increasing accountability, and innovation.

   
   

7. Expanding diversity data: Signatories are extending diversity data collection, with 89% capturing additional diversity data, up from 76% in 2021, and ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation are the most commonly collected datapoints. A third of firms are also analysing the data across diversity dimensions to understand potential intersectional impacts.

   
   

8. Role of the accountable executive: Accountability is sitting at the highest levels of seniority, with almost all (97%) accountable executives (AE) sitting on the executive committee. However, there are signs of a growing trend for the AE role to revert to women and HR.

   
   

9. Linking to pay: In 2024, 74% of signatories reported that linking diversity to executive pay has been effective, up from 70% in 2023. Almost half (43%) of firms with a link to pay also apply it beyond the executive team.

   
   

10. Publishing updates: Publishing progress is the Charter principle that has taken the longest to improve, with 88% of signatories posting an update on their progress on their company website. Disclosure is improving, however, the quality and format of reporting varied significantly and only 32% included all the details required by HM Treasury.

Research methodology:

This review analyses annual updates from 205 signatories that signed the Charter before September 2023, provided an annual update to HM Treasury in September 2024, and have at least 250 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 p36 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 is proud to be HM Treasury’s data partner for the Charter. We 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.