MAJOR banks including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been called out by an influential parliamentary committee for failing to sign the Women in Finance Charter and pledging to promote gender diversity across their businesses.
Conservative MP and head of the Treasury Select Committee Nicky Morgan has written to 33 financial services firms, including BNP Paribas, PIMCO and UBS, who have yet to become signatories.
She has given companies until tomorrow to confirm that they plan to join the initiative, or give details of why they have decided not to do so.
“The progress of the Women in Finance Charter is to be welcomed. The aim, however, must be to see all firms in the financial sector sign up to the charter and make a concerted effort to improve their gender diversity, particularly in senior roles,” said Morgan.
“As the charter states, a balanced workforce is good for customers, profitability and workplace culture.
“Huge multi-nationals including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS are yet to sign up to the charter, and if they don’t intend to do so, the Treasury Committee wants them to explain why,” she added.
Committee members – who are due to meet on February 20 – could agree to publicly publish bank responses as early as next week.
A spokeswoman for JP Morgan said the bank supports the goals of the charter and is “considering signing up”. Morgan’s letter was also sent to the likes of Close Brothers, AIG Europe, Metro Bank, Vanguard Asset Management and Seedrs.
More than 160 companies had signed up to the charter as of November, representing more than 600,000 employees in the financial services industry.
That means around 50 per cent of the industry’s workforce is currently covered by the charter – accounting for pledges from firms including Standard Chartered, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley International and Deutsche Bank.
The Women in Finance Charter was first published in March 2016 and commits firms to supporting the progression of women into senior roles, to publicly report on progress on delivering internal diversity targets, and have at least one member of the executive team responsible for gender diversity.
Morgan’s letter said: “The Treasury Select Committee launched an inquiry into Women in Finance on 19 October 2017. As well as exploring the barriers women entering and progressing their careers often face in the financial services industry, the inquiry also considers the success of the HMT’s Women in Finance Charter in securing signatories and improving financial firms’ recruitment and other practices.
“The Women in Finance Charter has so far achieved 162 signatories as of November 2017. Estimates by HM Treasury suggest that these signatories represent over 600,000 employees in the industry, which is around half of the employees in the financial services sector. This progress is to be welcomed. However, the aim must be to see all firms in the financial sector sign up to the Charter and to make a real effort to improve their gender diversity, particularly in senior roles.
The Committee understands that your firm has yet to sign the Women in Finance Charter. I would be grateful if you could write to the Committee by 16 February 2018, setting out whether you will sign the Charter with the next cohort of signatories and if not, the reasons why you are not signing up.”
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