KPMG is amongst a cohort of financial services firms to sign up to the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter, leaving Deloitte as the only one of the Big Four not to have made a public commitment to four industry actions in order to increase female representation
The additional 25 signatories means a total of 141 firms have now formally pledged to promote gender diversity since the charter’s launch in March 2016.
The Treasury has released research conducted by think tank New Financial with existing signatories which found that over two-thirds of finance firms believe that signing up will lead to permanent and sustainable change in gender diversity at senior levels across the industry.
According to the findings, 62% of firms have taken specific action to support female career progression since signing up, while nearly 70% are considering extending the charter principles to other diversity characteristics, and nearly half said the charter has prompted them to take specific actions in their approach to non-gender diversity. PWC, for example, said that the charter is already driving stronger executive accountability for both their gender and ethnicity targets.
Economic Secretary Stephen Barclay said: ‘Firms are waking up to the fact that promoting more women into senior roles is not only the right thing to do, but will also improve their overall business performance. Diversity of thought at the top is crucial in keeping the financial sector at the cutting edge.’
The four actions outlined by the charter are: having one member of the senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion; setting internal targets for gender diversity in senior management; publishing progress annually against these targets in reports on the company website; and having an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.
Yasmine Chinwala, partner at New Financial and author of the report, said: ‘The survey data clearly shows that the charter is already beginning to make an impact on financial services at both company and industry level, and not only for female representation but diversity as a whole. The big challenge ahead will be making sure diversity stays on the business agenda.’
The new signatories mean that over 560,000 people are now covered by the charter – equal to over half of the employees in the financial services sector and more than the total employees in the mining, energy and water sector combined.
The Treasury’s women in finance charter: signatories survey is here.
Details of the Women in Finance charter are here.
