FCA reports fall in its gender and BAME diversity targets

"We are obviously disappointed that the number of people identifying as female and BAME in senior leadership roles fell slightly"

Under new rules, firms must publish gender pay gap information on an annual basis.

The FCA has set a target of 45% of its senior leadership team identifying as female by 2020 and 50% by 2025 as part of its commitment to the Women in Finance charter.

However for 2017 the FCA’s senior leadership team is 36% female, down from 39% in 2016.

The FCA’s mean gender pay gap is 19.28% and the median gap is 20.91%, which the regulator says reflects fewer women in more senior technical and managerial roles and is not an equal pay issue.

The FCA stressed that women and men who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value are paid equally.

The FCA has also set a target of 8% of its senior leadership team identifying as Black Asian Minority Ethnic by 2020 and 13% by 2025.

As of 31 March 2017 the FCA’s senior leadership team is 2% BAME which is down from 3% in 2016.

In a statement, the FCA says that since March 2017 it has "been making better progress towards its targets and anticipates this will be reflected in the 2018 figures".

The regulator says it has set out a number of actions in order to achieve its targets, including ensuring that diversity and inclusion is considered when allocating work and training sessions demonstrating the importance of diversity and inclusion to the organisation.

Christopher Woolard, Chair of the FCA’s Executive Diversity Committee, said: “Having a diverse workforce helps us make better decisions and judgements as a regulator and it is important that as a regulator we reflect the society which we represent. People who join us say our strong commitment to diversity and inclusion is a major reason for wanting to work at the FCA.

“We are obviously disappointed that the number of people identifying as female and BAME in senior leadership roles fell slightly in the year ending 31 March 2017. However, we are taking positive steps to ensure that we achieve a better balance across the organisation.  This includes improving our gender balance throughout the organisation which will help reduce the gender pay gap.

“We already know that recruitment to our senior team is beginning to increase the representation of women and BAME colleagues. We have set an ambitious aspiration for greater diversity in the FCA and are determined to meet it.”