Big-bank leadership lacks diversity, House panel says

Dive Brief:

Members of Congress want financial institutions to make more of an effort to include women and minorities in senior leadership positions, following the release of diversity data among the country's top banks.
The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services found diversity is lacking among the country's largest banks and said more work needs to be done to promote inclusion in the sector.
The committee sent data requests to eight of the nation's largest banks this year to inform Congress of their diversity levels, policies and practices.

Dive Insight:

Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Wells Fargo responded to the committee's request for diversity and inclusion data and policies from 2015 to the present.

Results showed senior leadership at the largest banks is mostly white and male. Not one "megabank" has a female or minority CEO, and less than 25% of senior leadership is composed of women and/or minorities.

Despite a U.S. population consisting of more than 50% women and 40% minorities, the boards of directors of the nation's largest banks are composed of only 29% women and 17% minorities, the committee found.

Banks are not making much of an effort to improve these statistics, the data shows.

"There is no chief diversity officer currently reporting directly to the CEO of a megabank," the committee said in a statement, adding only one out of 25,000 employees on average is dedicated to diversity.

The committee also found only half of the banks surveyed spent more than $1 billion on partnerships with diverse suppliers, or woman-owned and minority-owned businesses.

Although the survey found large banks spend an average of $1.4 billion on supplier diversity, less than 1% of megabank spending is devoted to diverse asset managers and suppliers, and only 4% of externally managed assets go to diverse-owned firms.

Megabanks are making some progress in their diversity efforts, but there is more work to be done, the committee concluded.

"[Banks should be] increasing their focus on recruiting through affinity groups and minority colleges and universities; closing the pay equity gap for women and minorities; and increasing investment in leadership and development programs for building a pipeline of diverse talent," the committee said.