UK Finance is a signatory to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter. We took the decision to join at an early Board meeting and formally became a signatory on the first possible occasion, which proved to be the cohort announced by HM Treasury on 10 November 2017.

In doing so, we committed to 40% of our senior management posts being filled by women within three years and added that we aspired to achieve gender parity over the medium term. In reporting to HM Treasury last month, we explained that we envisaged achieving this by measures supporting the development of a strong and sustainable female talent pipeline laying the foundation for senior female succession to the top including:

• Our aiming to achieve a 50% gender balance in junior and middle management roles by the end of January 2021 in order to develop an internal pipeline of female talent for senior management level roles
• Training initiatives in support of our diversity strategy and the achievement of diversity targets
• Working only with external recruiters who operate in accordance with our values and diversity commitments
• Requiring all senior level recruitment shortlists to be gender balanced
• Ensuring that all promotion and remuneration decisions are made in accordance with objective, structures processes in order to avoid gender bias
• Maintaining and promoting a culture and working environment that is supportive of maternity returners and other employees with caring responsibilities.