Women in Finance Charter gets 67 new signatories

An additional 67 companies have signed up to the Women in Finance Charter, bringing the total number of signatories to 272 and covering more than 760,000 UK employees in the financial services sector.

The initiative, which is run by HM Treasury, aims to increase the number of women in leadership positions in financial services.

Commitments

Businesses that sign the charter make a number of commitments to help their female talent progress in their career. These include having a member of the company’s senior executive team who is responsible for and accountable for improving gender diversity and inclusion and setting gender diversity targets in senior management within the company. Signatories also agree to provide annual reports on their gender diversity targets.

The most recent signatories include investment banking firm JP Morgan, accountancy firm Grant Thornton, female financial advice firm Evolution Financial Planning and financial technology support firm FinTech Strategic Advisors Ltd.

A recent review of the Women in Finance Charter highlighted the success of the scheme, with figures showing that more than 75% of the first group of businesses that signed the charter have either raised or maintained the proportion of women in senior management roles. More than 85% of signatories have also agreed to help at least 30% of women to get into senior roles by 2021.

Important

Commenting on the importance of businesses signing the Women in Finance Charter, Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen said that not enough women are getting to the top in financial services, and it is important that companies sign the Charter and commit publicly to take action.

He added that it is the morally right thing to do, and a balanced workforce is good for business, profitability and the customers.