Call for greater diversity and inclusion across the City

The Association of Corporate Treasurers launches campaign to address gap between aspirations and reality in the financial markets and boost accountability
 

Corporate treasurers are being urged to throw their weight behind a new set of principles that aim to promote and improve diversity and inclusion across all participants in financial markets. The ACT says that while many UK banks and corporates have taken huge steps forward in recent years, the aim is “to help encourage further positive engagement as a step change to improving accountability and leading to better outcomes”. 

The association added: “ACT corporate members attend hundreds of bank meetings every year and they observe a wide disconnect between the diversity aspirations of banks and the reality of the coverage teams that represent them.”

D&I principles

ACT members are encouraged to: 

1. Make diversity a standing item on all interaction between corporates and their banking partners, encouraging open conversations to progress the diversity agenda across the market.  
2. Conduct bank meetings in a way that supports inclusive participation. This includes encouraging, and being receptive to, attendance of junior team members from both sides at client meetings, recognising they may be more nervous, or less knowledgeable, than their colleagues. Their attendance can be to learn, observe, or participate. 
3. Understand the institutional policies, aspirations and targets of their banks around diversity, and the timelines involved. Conversations about progress should be included in periodic review meetings. 
4. Recognise that developing diverse teams also applies in the corporate setting and work towards developing and retaining diverse teams, while recognising the considerable challenges arising given the small scale of many treasury teams.
5. Where appropriate, provide challenge and constructive feedback to banks around diversity. When doing so, they should assume good intent – and should expect a constructive response.
6. Where members choose to include diversity as a metric in Request for Proposal or other documents, they should be clear with participating banks on their expectations.

 There is work to be done on both sides, it is an issue where we all recognise there is more that we need to do, so this is a constructive conversation to have  

Open discussions

A number of corporate treasurers from the top 20 UK listed companies have already committed to their banking partners that they will adhere to this approach. See the full list of signatories here: treasurers.org/hub/blog/guiding-principles-diversity-inclusion. The ACT will be encouraging all their members, both corporates and banks, and the wider treasury and banking community, to use these principles as a basis for open discussion, and to make similar commitments to one another.

Writing in The Treasurer magazine, Frances Hinden, EVP treasury and corporate finance at Shell International, says: “I, together with other corporate treasurers, will be asking banks to bring along more junior members of their teams to meetings, to give them exposure to both bank and corporate leaders. We will do the same with our graduate trainees and analysts. 

“This isn’t a massive change project with a big budget that will change the world in a week, but a change in our approach and a new year’s resolution to make sure all my relationship banks know that this is important to me.”

Networking events for next generation

Speaking to The Treasurer, Annette Spencer, ACT chief executive, said: “There is work to be done on both sides, it is an issue where we all recognise there is more that we need to do, so this is a constructive conversation to have.” Spencer added that the ACT would be running practical events, bringing corporate treasurers and banking partners together in a ‘safe space’ where it is possible to have open conversations around diversity and inclusion issues.

“We are also looking at networking events for the next generation of bankers and corporate treasurers so that they are able to build their networks and confidence, as well as seeing the diversity that does exist in both of these communities,” she added. “In a few years’ time, these will be the people that will be taking more senior roles.”

Spencer stressed the importance of the principles. “We are not just talking about it, we are providing practical guidance,” she said. “These principles can work no matter the size and scale of your organisation.”

Time to celebrate

At its recent ESG conference, the ACT announced that a new diversity and inclusion awards programme will be launched early in 2024.

About the author

Philip Smith is the editor of The Treasurer