Major investors call on financial regulator to act on racial inequality

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Major UK investors have called on the financial regulator to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for financial institutions. “ShareAction’s research, which involved interviews with 17 FTSE 100 financial sector companies, revealed reporting of ethnicity pay gaps was the first step to bringing transparency and action.” We are pleased to see the FCA taking action to improve diversity and inclusion in the financial sector. This is not just about fair pay, it is also about ensuring that our financial institutions adequately reflect the British society they are supposed to serve Kohinoor Choudhury, ShareAction But it added: “Although companies who voluntarily report their ethnicity pay gap found that often the gap was due to under-representation, simply reporting their ethnicity representation is not enough – there could be stark pay differences between ethnicities at each seniority level of the company.” It recommended measures like reporting on employee ethnicity, broken down into the most appropriate categories and quartile pay bands, in addition to the overall pay gap, as well as asking companies to disaggregate data by ONS ethnicity categories. “The FCA should heed investors’ call for ethnicity pay gap reporting to be mandatory, as a crucial first step to raising workforce standards across the sector.” An FCA spokesman said: “For UK financial services to be competitive and for the companies in it to be well-run, with healthy work environments, it’s vital they attract, retain and promote the best talent.