Report exposes finance industry's failure to promote women

FINANCIAL INDUSTRY in the country has made little progress in recruiting more women to top positions, a new report from the finance ministry said on Thursday (3), a pace of change the head of British insurer Aviva called "unacceptable".

Further progress may be harder as financial firms and other companies try to balance promises they have made with US president Donald Trump's drive to crack down on diversity and inclusion-related goals.

Women working in finance held 36 per cent of senior positions last year, up from 35 per cent in 2023 and 34 per cent in 2022. The slow progress was attributed to restructuring, low turnover in senior management and hiring freezes, according to the latest report from the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, compiled by think tank New Financial.

Amanda Blanc, chief executive officer at Aviva, called the pace of change "frankly unacceptable."

"However, we must accept that this progress is not happening quickly enough and the annual improvements are too gradual," Blanc said in a statement attached to the report.

The charter, signed by around 450 firms and launched in 2016, aims at getting City businesses to promise to increase female representation at top company echelons. Each firm sets its own goals and timeline.

For 2025, 44 per cent of these firms with targets due this year say they will not meet their goals or reaching them would take "effort", the report said.

Trump's crackdown on DEI goals has spurred some to abandon public commitments to diversity goals. Swiss bank UBS dropped its diversity targets from its annual report last month.

A third of the 60 firms with a deadline in 2024 failed to meet their targets, according to the report.

Germany's Commerzbank had just over a fifth of women in leadership roles by July 2024, short of its 25 per cent target. It blamed hiring limitations and fewer management positions.

Natixis' London branch increased their senior women cohort to 28.4 per cent from 16.7 per cent in the last five years, but it postponed its 30 per cent target to September 2026, the report said.

The report also found that 95 per cent of signatories had shifted to some form of hybrid-working model, which it said benefits women with care-giving responsibilities in particular. That was up from a quarter of signatories in 2019.

(Reuters)