Finance Monthly March 2020 Edition

With that in mind, we now, as an industry need to move closer to a meaningful solution. A suggestion of progress for CFOs Digging deeper into our findings, the research showed that just 6.6 % of CEO roles are currently held by women, with the position of CFO emerging as the most diversified with nearly 15% (14.7%). There’s a long, long way to go but it certainly indicates a degree of progress. At the same time, female CFOs are countering the prevailing pay gap trend, averaging a salary 132% more than their male peers. We also found the FTSE100 to be the most diversified of the exchanges, with 9.7% of these senior roles occupied by women. Last year, RBS achieved an FTSE 100 first by appointing Alison Rose to CEO and Katie Murray as CFO. Closing the pay gap requires proactive goal-setting and problem- solving to shift entrenched cultural, societal and attitudinal norms within finance, to harness any kind of meaningful change. For this to happen, we need to start with “Gender pay is not a female problem, it’s is everyone’s problem.” C-level state of play in finance Unpacking the true state of play in gender diversity within the finance sector, we commissioned research across C-level positions within the top 100 companies in the FTSE, NYSE and NASDAQ, comparing this with our proprietary data. We found: • Of the 300 positions of Chair, CEO and CFO, women make up a total of just 8.6% . • Within this, just 5.6% of the chair positions are held by women. • Women are paid an average 85% of men across all three exchanges. BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES - GENDER PAY GAP 19 www.finance-monthly.com