Culture shift to recruit and retain female talent

2024 was a significant year for the UK with its first female Chancellor. Last year also marked 10 years since Dame Inga Beale became CEO of Lloyds of London, the first female in its 326 year history. It also saw the appointment of Pam Kaur as HSBC Group's first female chief financial officer, marking a significant milestone in an industry long criticised for its gender disparities, particularly in senior leadership and pay equity.

With nearly four decades of experience in auditing, risk management, and compliance, Kaur's ascent to the C-suite highlights a growing – if still gradual – shift toward gender diversity in financial services. Despite these encouraging steps, the industry continues to lag behind in closing the gender pay gap and promoting women to top executive roles.

Financial services lagging behind

The finance and insurance industry in the United Kingdom has long been one of the poorest-performing sectors regarding the gender pay gap. The gender pay gap represents the difference between the median hourly pay of men and women, expressed as a percentage of men's pay, and in 2024, it continued to be highest in financial services.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence only 6% of CEOs are women globally, with the level ranging from 3% in emerging markets to 8% in the US and Europe. Across the FTSE 100, according to a recent study, women make up 23% of chief financial officers, chief operating officers, divisional bosses or are already chief executives. Bloomberg earnings calls trends data from UK listed financial services firms shows that executives are not mentioning diversity efforts as much as they used to.

Combatting gender diversity through recruitment and retention

Keeping gender diversity a priority in the financial services sector

Whilst the outcome of the FCA and PRA’s survey and subsequent guidance is still awaited, firms are wise to ensure that policies and processes are robust in this area ahead of the introduction of requirements from the regulators.

Meeting the goal of increasing gender diversity will require a focus on recruitment, retention and promotion, behaviour and culture and weaving the agenda throughout the business. The monitoring, as well as sharing of data illustrating improvements and targets, and even external accreditations, can build a profile to attract talent as well as retain it. This data is not restricted to internal monitoring data, but external publications on diversity data to drive change.

As economic conditions get tougher, it is important that diversity and inclusion remains on the agenda in the battle to secure and retain talent as well as hit their gender diversity targets.