The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion has forwarded correspondence to over three dozen financial institutions to request diversity and inclusion data and policies.
Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee and Joyce Beatty (D-OH), subcommittee chairwoman spearheaded the effort to send letters to 37 bank holding companies requesting the information from 2015 to the present – focusing on sites with over $50 billion in assets.
“Unfortunately, a complete picture of diversity and inclusion in the financial services industry cannot be obtained until the financial services industry shares their diversity data and policies with the OMWIs, Congress and the public,” the lawmakers wrote. “According to data presented by the Government Accountability Office at a February hearing of the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, the financial services industry has failed to significantly improve diversity in its management ranks.”
The letter notes from 2007 to 2015, the overall representation of women among managers at financial services firms remained generally unchanged while the overall representation of minorities among managers marginally increased, except for African-Americans – whose representation decreased from 6.5 percent to 6.3 percent.
The inquiry included total number of employees – full- and part-time; career level of employees; gender, race and ethnic identity of your employees, as otherwise known or provided voluntarily; employee compensation by gender, race and ethnicity; and number and dollar value invested with minority- and women-owned vendors and asset managers as compared to all vendor and asset manager investments.