Bank of England's long History of Equality

Long before equality employment legislation the Bank has taken a lead on diversity issues. When I first went to the Bank of England in 1894 women in ordinary banks were unheard of, and their introduction into the Bank of England, of all places, caused a mild sensation. (Janet Hogarth, First Superintendent of the department of female clerks)

By 1955 women were able to compete for jobs that had traditionally only been carried out by men. This was highly progressive for the time.

Today the issues of equality, diversity and inclusion are still equally important to the Bank, and an essential way to deliver the Bank's business strategy. The Bank's greatest asset is the people who work for it. They are crucial to our success. It therefore needs to attract and retain the best possible people. To achieve this, the Bank is committed to ensuring that employees (both potential and actual) are treated fairly, have a positive experience, and feel able to contribute to the best of their ability.
Our annual Diversity Report gives an overview of the Bank's diversity and inclusion activities, the successes and the challenges we are currently working on.

The Bank has made great strides over recent years in increasing its staff diversity, and making the Bank a more inclusive place to work. The representation of female and Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic staff is increasing along with pipelines of talent for both looking strong. The Bank has a number of staff networks that help in increasing the Bank's staff diversity.
The Bank established a Diversity and Inclusion Forum (DIF) in January 2010. The aim of DIF is to engage a range of staff on a broad agenda of diversity topics and issues. It also supports our other established employee networks. It does this by:

Feeding staff and employee network views into the strategy and the Equality and Diversity Committee's discussion.
Harnessing the energy of the networks to help deliver initiatives in pursuit of agreed strategy.
Coordinating and supporting central resourcing of staff- and network-led initiatives.
Providing an independent review and critique of the success of strategy.

The Bank also has a number of employee networks:

• Bank of England Ethnic Minorities (BEEM) Network
• Disability Network
• Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual and Transgender Network
• Mental Health Network
• Women in the Bank
• Christian Union
• Muslim Network
• Jewish Network
• Recruitment

The Bank of England are forward-thinking in their approach to diversity and are innovatively paving the way as an equal opportunities employer.

Are you interested in a career with the Bank of England? Please click here.

VERCIDA works with over one hundred clients who are committed to creating an inclusive work environment. If you are an employer and interested in working with VERCIDA to promote your diversity and inclusion initiatives and attract the best candidates, please call 02037405973 or email [email protected] for more information.

We are also officially recommended by Disability Confident as a step on achieving Employer status, please click here for more information.