Senior roles for women pledge from 72 financial firms – the full list

More than 70 financial services firms have pledged to promote gender balance across their organisation by signing the Treasury’s Women in Finance charter.

Firms signing the charter commit to supporting the progression of women into senior roles and publicly reporting on the progress they make on achieving this goal.

Signatory firms must appoint a member of its senior executive team to be responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion and set internal targets for gender diversity in our senior management.

They must also have a clear aim to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity. The charter was first proposed following the review Empowering Productivity: Harnessing the talents of women in financial services, undertaken by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the Chief Executive of Virgin Money, and taken forward by economic secretary to the Treasury Harriet Baldwin MP.

Insurers Aviva, Standard Life, Unum, L&G and Prudential have all signed the charter, as has Nest.

ABI director general Huw Evans says: “Improving our sector’s diversity and inclusion is vital to our future success, not a ‘nice to have’. To meet the fast-changing and increasingly complex needs of our customers, we need to have the most effective possible workforce at all levels to deliver.

“The ABI has an important role to play in both helping develop the next generation of industry leaders and in demonstrating best practice ourselves as an employer. Our signing the Women in Finance Charter is a further demonstration of that commitment.”

Unum human resources director Liz Walker says: “Unum is absolutely committed to building a more equal workforce.  Signing the Charter is a great opportunity to share what we are doing and learn from other companies so we can do even more.  I urge those yet to sign the Charter to do so and promote gender equality in their own companies.  Fairer and more equal companies are without doubt more successful and we have a responsibility to our communities and clients to lead the way.

“At Unum we will be setting additional internal targets which the Women in Leadership programme will help us meet.  Presently, we feel we are doing better than average for financial services, but we are striving for further improvements still.”

Standard Life chief executive Keith Skeoch says: “In signing this Charter we’re taking another important step towards our goal of creating a diverse leadership population and talent pipeline. At Standard Life we believe it’s important to have a fully diverse workforce and we have been taking positive steps to break down barriers where they exist. That’s why we’re pleased to be joining other leading organisations in supporting the Women in Finance Charter. We’re looking forward to working together to make a sustained difference.”

Nest CEO Helen Dean says: “The Women in Finance Charter is a very important initiative and I am pleased that Nest will be playing its  part in helping create a gender balance, at all levels, across financial services. The decision to sign the Charter was an easy one for Nest. That’s not to say we entered into it lightly but it felt obvious to me and the Nest leadership team that we have a responsibility to promote equality and diversity here at Nest. Not only does it create a fair working environment but it’s also good for business which in turn, is good for our members and customers.”

List of Signatories to the Women in Finance Charter

 Aberdeen Asset Management

 Affinity Capital

 Aldermore Group plc

 Association of British Insurers (ABI)

 Atom Bank plc

 Aviva plc

 Bacs Payment Schemes Limited

 Barclays Bank Plc

 BlackRock

 BNY Mellon

 British Bankers’ Association

 Capital Credit Union

 Chartered Insurance Institute

 Cicero Group

 Circle

 Collinson Insurance Services Limited

 Columbia Threadneedle Investments

 Credit Suisse

 Deutsche Bank AG

 Direct Line Group

 E2W Limited

 Ecclesiastical Insurance

 EY

 Fidelity International UK

 Financial Conduct Authority

 Handelsbanken

 Hannay Investments

 Henderson Global Investors

 Hermes Investment Management

 HM Treasury

 HSBC UK

 ionStar

 Isban UK

 Landbay

 Leeds Building Society

 Legal & General plc

 Liverpool Victoria

 Lloyds Banking Group

 Lloyd’s of London

 London Capital Credit Union

 London Stock Exchange Group plc

 Market Harborough Building Society

 MasterCard (UK&I Division)

 MetLife UK

 Mizuho Bank Ltd.

 Mizuho International plc.

 Morgan Stanley International

 National House Building Council

 Nationwide

 NEST Corporation

 Nottingham Building Society

 Phoenix Group

 Principality Building Society

 Progressive Building Society

 Prudential plc

 PwC UK

 Ridgeway Partners

 Santander UK plc

 Schroders plc

 South Manchester Credit Union

 Standard Chartered PLC

 Standard Life

 Sturgeon Ventures LLP

 The Co-operative Bank Plc

 The Co-operative Credit Union

 The Royal Bank of Scotland

 The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society

 Thomson Reuters

 TSB Bank

 Unum

 Virgin Money

 West Bromwich Building Society