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Social mobilityFinancial servicesLatest NewsEthnicity

Cracks emerge in financial services’ ‘class ceiling’

by Kavitha Sivasubramaniam 2 Oct 2024
by Kavitha Sivasubramaniam 2 Oct 2024 Shutterstock / Hryshchyshen Serhii
Shutterstock / Hryshchyshen Serhii

Cracks are starting to form in the UK financial service sector’s ‘class ceiling’, with the number of people from lower socio-economic backgrounds in senior positions showing a small increase.

New research from Progress Together revealed the figure rose from 26% in 2023 to 28% this year, but highlighted more work needs to be done to reduce the industry’s class divide.

The Shaping the Sector Report discovered that socio-economic diversity reduces with seniority, finding 58% of senior level employees are from a higher socio-economic background, compared with 45% in junior roles.

According to the research, the number who studied at independent schools is also greater among senior staff, at 21% versus 6.5% nationally.

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Additionally, white men from higher socio-economic backgrounds are 33 times more likely to hold senior financial services roles than ethnic minority women from a lower socio-economic background.

Sophie Hulm, CEO at Progress Together, said: “Senior leaders in this critical sector create organisational cultures that shape societal standards about the ownership of capital – and guide the investment of personal and business assets. Appointments to these roles should be based wholly on competence and efficacy – rather than on factors related to background.”

The membership organisation, which represents 55 companies, is urging the FCA and PRA to make collecting and reporting socio-economic background data mandatory. It has also set out a list of recommendations which it believes will help create a more socio-economically diverse sector.

This includes: setting goals and being accountable for change, exploring the relationship between socio-economic background and performance, developing talent and leadership programmes, implementing policies and approaches that measure and ensure greater equality in work/client/project distribution by socio-economic background, exploring the experiences and perspectives of employees to help inform action and engaging with executive search firms.

Hulm added: “Achieving lasting change in this important area is a marathon, not a sprint. We are grateful to our members for submitting their data and for their continued efforts to improve access and opportunities for everyone in one of the UK’s most strategically important sectors. However, there is still a huge amount of work to do to ensure that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are not excluded from progressing to the highest levels of the UK financial services sector.”

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Kavitha Sivasubramaniam

Kavitha Sivasubramaniam is an experienced journalist, editor and communications professional who has been working in B2B publishing for more than 17 years. After graduating from Bournemouth University with a degree in Multi Media Journalism, Kavitha started her career in local and regional newspapers, before moving to consumer magazines and later trade titles, as well as PR. Specialising in pay and reward, she has been editor of a number of HR publications including Pay & Benefits, Employee Benefits, Benefits Expert, Reward and CIPP’s membership magazine, Professional. In June 2024, she won Pay, Reward and Employee Benefits Journalist of the Year at the Willis Towers Watson media awards. She was also named one of Each Person’s top 20 influential HR bloggers and managed a highly commended content team of the year in 2019.

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