LONDON–Which country’s banks have the highest number of women on their boards? With International Women’s Day approaching March 8, one new analysis is offering an answer.
GlobalData’s Retail Banker International writer Evie Rusman analyzed how some of the top retail banks measure up when it comes to gender diversity and said she found that when it comes to the percentage of women in directorial roles, Canada’s top five banks performed the best with 28 of 71 (39.5%) board members being female.
The board at Canada’s largest bank by assets, RBC, is 42.9% female. Next is Scotiabank, which has five women in directorial positions out of 13, or 38.5%.
“Following closely behind Canada, is the U.K. with 37.9% female directors (25 of 66) across its five biggest banks,” said Rusman. “Out of the U.K. banks surveyed, RBS leads the way as 46.2% of boardroom members are female (six of 13).”
Other U.K. banks include HSBC (42.9%), Barclays (33.3%), Lloyds (30.8%) and Standard Chartered (35.7%).
“France ranks third in terms of gender diversity – across the top five retail banks, 26 out of 79 of directors are female, a percentage of 32.9%. This is an improvement from 2013, where the percentage across the five biggest banks was 30.9%,” said Rusman.
Where the U.S. Ranks
Where do banks in the United States place? In the middle of the pack, according to Rusman, who said that at the top five banks in the U.S. 31.3% of directors are female. Citi tops the U.S. ranking as seven out of 17 (41.2%) female board members, followed by Bank of America who has six out of 17 (35.3%).
“Out of all the countries surveyed, Spain’s retail banking sector is the worst when it comes to gender diversity – just 23.3% (17 out of 73) of board directors across the country’s top five banks are female,” said Rusman. “Despite a poor show overall from Spain, CaixaBank performed considerably well with six of 18 (33.3%) female directors, according to its website. In addition, Banco Santander also scored highly with 37.5% (six out of 16) female directors.
“Germany ranked the second lowest – collectively, across Germany’s top five banks 30.2% (29 of 96) of directors are women,” added Rusman.