Thomson Reuters first none bank entity to sign The Women in Finance Charter

Financial and Risk services giant Thomson Reuters, with operations in financial professional & marketplaces, enterprise solutions and media, among operations in Legal, Property & Science, and Tax & Accounting, has signed today The Women in Finance Charter, active in the UK.

Being the first signatory outside the banking sector, Thomson Reuters pledges to assure for gender balance across the UK financial services industry and committed itself to see gender parity at all levels for a more balanced and fair industry. Already signed up are Virgin Money, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays, and Lloyds Banking Group.

The origins of the Charter go back to recommendations by Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO at Virgin Money, for HM Treasury. The paper was called “Empowering Productivity: harnessing the talents of women in financial services” and called for a long-term commitment to support the progression of women into senior roles in financial services, as well as to create a diversity strategy with internal targets.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia commented on the news: “I am delighted that Thomson Reuters has decided to sign the Women in Finance Charter. Signing the Charter is important because it sends out a strong signal about what’s important to you as a business: the importance of gender equality, diversity and inclusivity as well as promoting senior female representation in professional and financial services more broadly.”

David Craig, president, Financial & Risk at Thomson Reuters said: “We need to continue to manage the flow of talent to the top of the organization so that it properly reflects the diversity of the society we inhabit and the customers we serve. It isn’t about meeting gender targets today – it’s about creating an environment, a culture, which attracts and retains the best people because it offers them the opportunity to succeed and to excel, it’s about an open and inclusive culture that drives better performance.”

According to an OECD estimate, labor market gender equality could boost British GDP by 10 percent by 2030. However, women in Britain are still underrepresented in the financial services industry: accounting for only 14% of executive committees in 2015. Also, women in the finance industry are estimated to earn 55% less annually than men, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. That is much wider than the 28% pay gap seen across the overall economy in the UK. But a 5-year perspective shows some improvement in financial services: women in board positions in the FTSE 100 were 12.5% in 2010, and more than doubled to 26% in 2015, according to Davies Review.

Since its inception, FinanceFeeds has made several feature articles about women in the finance industry, including interviews with Mehtap Onder, Regional Director at CFH Clearing Limited, and Natallia Hunik, Global Head of Sales at Advanced Markets LLC & Fortex Inc, and Diana Munoz, as well as a talk with Swissquote’s Peter Rosenstreich about female CEOs in publicly traded stock companies.

In celebration of our 1,000^th post in April, FinanceFeeds uncovered the extraordinary impact that women have on the FX industry and celebrated their success with a bundle of interviews with Laoura Salveta (Head of Marketing at FXPRIMUS), Sarah Henry (VP Marketing and Operations at ConversionPros), Tamara Manoni (Senior Marcom Manager at MarketsPulse), Katy Parks (Account Manager at Tradesocio), Nicolette Yuen (Marketing and Communications at Blackwell Global), Aviya Arika (Offshore Banking Specialist at Tal Ron Drihem & Co Law Firm), Valeria Bednarik (Chief Analyst at FXStreet), Eva Antoniou (Sales Manager, Southern Europe at TradingCentral), and Yarden Fineman, (Sales Manager at TradersEducation). To read FinanceFeeds’ post “Celebrating the successes of the leading ladies within the FX industry”, click here.