Great Britain: financial services to commit to making room for women

Several British banks have signed a Government charter in which they pledge for a better gender balance especially by placing more women in key roles. This represents a revolution in so far as the gender pay gap is at its widest in the financial services sector. The ‘Women in Finance’ charter comprises the following four measures: nominating a senior executive 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 intending to ensure senior executive pay is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.
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Presented on 22 March 2016, the charter was written based on results of a nine-month study conducted by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money. The names of the charter’s signatories will be officially published in three months however the financial sector’s leading names are known to have signed up to it. HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are known to have signed. Insurance group Legal & General, Investment fund Columbia Threadneedle Investments, and both Virgin m

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