Women in Finance Charter at The British Business Bank

The British Business Bank signed the Women in Finance Charter in March 2018. Sponsored by HM Treasury, the Women in Finance Charter is a pledge for gender balance across financial services.

The Charter asks financial services firms to commit to four industry actions to prepare their female talent for leadership positions:

1. Having one member of our senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender, diversity and inclusion
2. Setting internal targets for gender diversity in our senior management
3. Publishing progress against these targets each year in reports on our website
4. Having an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity

We feel we continue to make great progress against our commitments and are confident that we’re on track to meet our targets. Although outside of our commitments under the Charter, we also confirm that, at the end of July 2020, 25% of our Board were female.

We’re continuing with our plans to improve all types of diversity in our organisation and maintaining a diverse work environment.

To support our commitment to the Charter, these are our key achievements so far:

• Supporting female career development by launching our mentoring programme for senior leaders
• Reviewing our approach to inclusive recruitment by making sure shortlists and interviews for senior colleagues are diverse
• Delivering mandatory hiring manager training on recruitment and flexible working
• Making sure working practices aren’t a barrier to progression by continuing to review our approach to flexible working
• Updating our careers web page to better reflect the Bank’s policies on flexible working