For 2017 the FCA’s senior leadership team is 36% female, down from 39% in 2016. The regulator has set a target of 45% of its senior leadership team identifying as female by 2020 and 50% by 2025 as part of its commitment to the government’s women in finance charter.

As of 31 March 2017 the FCA’s senior leadership team is 2% BAME, which is down from 3% in 2016. This compares with the regulator’s target of 8% of its senior leadership team identifying as BAME by 2020 and 13% by 2025.

The FCA says it has been making better progress towards its targets since March 2017 and anticipates this will be reflected in the 2018 figures.

The regulator has also published gender pay gap information, which shows its mean gender pay gap is 19.28% and the median gap is 20.91%.

The FCA states that this is not an equal pay issue, arguing that the gap reflects relatively fewer women in more senior technical and managerial roles and the higher proportion of women at administrator level.

Christopher Woolard, chair of the FCA’s executive diversity committee, said: ‘We are obviously disappointed that the number of people identifying as female and BAME in senior leadership roles fell slightly in the year ending 31 March 2017.

‘However, we are taking positive steps to ensure that we achieve a better balance across the organisation. This includes improving our gender balance throughout the organisation which will help reduce the gender pay gap.

‘We already know that recruitment to our senior team is beginning to increase the representation of women and BAME colleagues. We have set an ambitious aspiration for greater diversity in the FCA and are determined to meet it.’

New figures published this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the UK’s overall gender pay gap rising marginally to 18.4%, but the gap for full-time workers falling to a record low – from 9.4% in 2016 to 9.1% in 2017.

Commenting on the data, prime minister Theresa May said: ‘Already many of the UK’s top companies are leading the way in making sure everyone’s contributions to the workplace are valued equally, and it is encouraging news that the gap has fallen this year for full-time workers.

‘But the gender pay gap isn’t going to close on its own – we all need to be taking sustained action to make sure we address this.

‘We need to see a real step-change in the number of companies publishing their gender pay data and offering progression and flexibility for all employees.’

There is now a legal requirement for all large employers to publish their gender pay and bonus data by April 2018.

The gender pay gap in the UK has come down from 21.9% in 2007 and 27.5% of FTSE 100 board members are now women, up from 12.5% in 2011.

Report by Pat Sweet