Reuters reports that women account for nearly one-third of the board of directors of financial services companies

Simon Jessop

LONDON (Reuters)-A report on Monday stated that in the five years since the government launched an initiative to improve the gender balance in the industry, the proportion of women on the boards of the UK’s 200 top financial companies has risen to nearly one-third.

When reviewing the impact of the charter, the think tank New Finance stated that since the introduction of the British Ministry of Finance’s Women’s Finance Charter in March 2016, the number of women on the company’s board of directors has risen from 23% to 32%.

It added that at the same time, the female representation on the executive committee increased from 14% to 22%. Based on the current rate of change, women will be equal in the board of directors in 2029 and the executive committee in 2033.

“Although female representatives are moving in the right direction, there is still a long way to go,” said Yasmine Chinwala, a partner at New Finance Corporation and co-author of the report.

“If the industry is to maintain the pace of change in the next five years, it must meet more severe challenges.”

These include the need to establish female talent pipelines, ensure accountability throughout the organization and cultivate more women in income-generating roles.

“In the next five years, we need to move from talking to acting, from working in isolation to working together, from a narrow view of gender diversity to covering women from all walks of life in society,” said Amanda, chief executive officer of the British insurance company. Blanc Aviva (Lang:).