Corporate report

The 10 Year Review of the Women in Finance Charter

Published 30 June 2026

This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government

Introduction

What this review is about

The UK government launched the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter in March 2016 to encourage the financial services industry to move towards gender balance in senior management. Ten years later, the Charter has ~400 signatories covering about 1.2 million employees across the sector.

This 10 Year Review assesses the impact of a decade of the Charter on signatories and the financial services industry. We celebrate successes, but also draw attention to where work still needs to be done to drive a permanent sustainable change.

One of the Charter’s greatest assets is the time series of signatory data amassed over the past 10 years. This uniquely rich dataset offers unparalleled insight into how signatories are approaching their Charter commitments to drive female representation in senior roles, and how the reporting has evolved.

We also present the findings of the 2026 signatory survey, to understand signatories’ perspectives on the different impacts of the Charter and its four principles, and the challenges they face in striving towards their targets.

Background to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter

In 2015, the UK government commissioned Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia to lead a review of women in senior management across UK financial services, which set out the principles of the Charter. In support of the report Empowering Productivity: Harnessing the talents of women in financial services.

HM Treasury launched the Women in Finance Charter in March 2016. Firms of all types and sizes across the financial services industry have signed up, including those based in the UK or with a significant presence in the UK. Firms sign the Charter on a voluntary basis and set their own targets.

The four Charter principles

In becoming a Charter signatory, firms pledge to promote gender diversity by:

• Having one member of the senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion;
• Setting internal targets for gender diversity in senior management;
• Publishing progress annually against these targets on a page on the company’s website dedicated to their Charter commitment;
• Having an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.

Chancellor’s foreword

Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer

We have come a long way since 2016, and as the first-ever female Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is clear to me just how necessary the Women in Finance Charter has been. Over the past decade, the Charter has played a crucial role in strengthening the UK’s financial services sector by supporting greater representation of women in senior leadership and helping to build a more diverse and effective leadership pipeline.

When I was at the Bank of England in 2001, only 9% of senior positions in UK financial institutions were held by women. Since the Charter’s inception, signatories have now reached an average of 37% of women in senior leadership positions. Sustained action is essential if we are to ensure talent and ambition are never limited by gender.

The Charter has grown from seven founding signatories into a world-leading initiative backed by over 400 financial services firms, supporting the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services sector. This has set a trend, with versions of the Charter launched in Belgium, Norway, Ireland, and Luxembourg over the past five years.

This 10 Year Review demonstrates the Charter’s continued impact – 78% of signatories have met their target at least once over the past decade, showing that the Charter has helped turn ambition into measurable progress across the sector.

Since the beginning of this Parliament, we have continued to progress towards the goal of gender parity by one percentage point per year. It is essential that this progress is not only continued but strengthened. I want to see change go further, and faster. My intention for the Charter is that we accelerate the average annual rate of progress beyond one percentage point per year, by the end of this parliament.

When we look back in another ten years together, I hope we can point to a decade of greater ambition, faster progress and deeper accountability, that benefits our businesses, the financial services sector, and the economy as a whole.

Supporter forewords

Rachel Blake MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury

It is my pleasure to welcome the Women in Finance Charter 10 Year Review. The financial services sector plays a vital role in the UK’s economy, and we need to ensure that we unlock the full potential of the sector to support productivity and growth of the UK economy.

The Charter’s purpose has always been rooted in making better use of the talent across the financial services sector so that firms can be more innovative, competitive and effective. Balanced leadership teams are not just a moral imperative, but an economic one.

Ten years on, we have made progress under these objectives. Of the large signatory respondents to the survey, 67% said the Charter had driven permanent sustainable change in their organisations, rising to 75% for the financial services industry. Furthermore, 73% said they might not have advanced to the same degree without being a Charter signatory. 

The Charter’s long-lasting impact is evident, and I am grateful to all signatories who responded to the 10-year review survey and contributed to this report. Your input has been invaluable in helping us understand the impact of the Women in Finance Charter over the past decade, and the opportunities and challenges that remain. 

I would also like to thank New Financial for their support of the Charter over the past decade, as well as our past and present Women in Finance Champions, Dame Debbie Crosbie, Dame Amanda Blanc and Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia.

Dame Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive of Nationwide, HM Treasury Women in Finance Champion

Ten years on, the Women in Finance Charter has become a powerful force for change across our industry. It has shown us what works. Targets, data, and senior accountability are shifting gender diversity from aspiration to business priority and helping improve female senior representation across our industry. We should be proud. But we can’t be complacent. While representation has improved, it has not translated into executive leadership at the pace required.

There are widening differences between organisations, persistent pipeline challenges, and structural barriers that continue to hold women back from the most senior roles.

The next phase will demand more. Technological and organisational transformation, the rise of AI, and shifting societal expectations are reshaping our industry - bringing both risk and opportunity and making diverse leadership more important than ever.

The Charter has proven what we know. That talent doesn’t rise by accident. Progress into senior roles requires disciplined succession planning: identifying high-potential women early, investing in them deliberately and ensuring they are visible where power is exercised.

Our focus must be on impact: prioritising the initiatives that genuinely shift the dial - those grounded in data, aligned to business strategy, and embedded in decision-making, talent development, and measurement. It is not about doing more - it is about delivering better outcomes.

Thank you to everyone who has played a role in the Charter’s success over the past 10 years. Your efforts have shown that change is possible. The challenge now is whether we are prepared to go further - and faster.

Sponsor forewords

Cheryl Toner, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer, Aviva

As Aviva’s Accountable Executive for the Women in Finance Charter, I am proud of the progress made over the Charter’s first decade—both across our organisation and the wider financial services sector.

The Charter has shown what can be achieved when organisations align behind a common ambition. More than 1.2 million employees now work for firms that have made a clear, public commitment to improving gender balance. This collective effort—supported by continued focus from industry and government—has built strong momentum and created a platform for lasting change.

At Aviva, we recognise that there is more to do. Representation of women in profit and loss roles and in technology leadership remains below where it needs to be—particularly as digital transformation and artificial intelligence shape the future of our industry. Addressing this requires sustained focus on building diverse talent pipelines and removing barriers to progression.

We remain committed to leading by example, continuing to challenge ourselves, and supporting the Charter’s ambitions as we build on the progress achieved to date.

David Schwimmer, Chief Executive, London Stock Exchange Group

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is proud to support this 10-year review and the progress it represents. Over the past decade, the Charter has helped embed accountability, transparency and ambition across our industry, contributing to an increase in women in senior roles from 27% to 37%.

At LSEG, we aim to create a culture where everyone belongs, a merit-based workplace that is representative of all sections of society and our customers, and where diverse perspectives are valued and leveraged. We have aligned our approach with the Charter by setting clear goals, strengthening accountability and embedding transparency in how we measure and report progress. Our ambition to achieve and maintain at least 40% women in senior leadership roles reflects this commitment and recognises the importance of representation at the highest levels of decision-making.

We value the Charter’s role in providing robust data, peer benchmarking and a shared framework for driving change. There is, however, much further to go.

LSEG stands ready to play its part through inclusive culture, leadership accountability and collaboration across our sector. By working together, we can move faster towards parity and create a more balanced, innovative and resilient financial services industry.

Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman, City of London Corporation

Ten years on from the launch of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, this Review marks an important milestone and a moment to reflect on progress and renew our ambition for the decade ahead.

The Charter’s progress reflects sustained commitment to making gender diversity a strategic priority, underpinned by targets, transparency, and accountability.

As a longstanding supporter of the Charter, the City of London Corporation is committed to building a diverse workforce and a more inclusive Square Mile. Through initiatives such as our City Belonging Project and Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce, we are working to create an environment where everyone – including Women in Finance signatories – can thrive and reach their full potential.

The Charter has helped shift expectations, embedding diversity as a core business issue. But this Review makes clear that progress must accelerate. The next decade must therefore be defined by greater ambition and action. Firms must use the data, learn from best practice, and address the structural barriers that remain. By working together, we can build a financial services sector that better reflects the talent it serves, and is stronger for it.

Note from the report authors

As HM Treasury’s data partner since 2016, New Financial has seen up close how the power, impact and influence of the Women in Finance Charter has grown and evolved.

Today, we take it for granted that targets are part and parcel of the diversity discussion, but back in 2016, that was not the case. The Charter has made a vital contribution by embedding targets, executive accountability and transparency as the default framework for driving change.

As the Charter moves into its second decade, we look forward to continue doing everything we can to bring this unique data set to life, and encourage signatories to benchmark, innovate and achieve their aspirations for female representation in senior management.

About the authors

Yasmine Chinwala OBE, Partner, New Financial

Yasmine has led New Financial’s diversity programme since 2014, specialising in diversity, culture and inclusion issues across the financial services industry. She was awarded an OBE in 2020 for her work on the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter.

Jennifer Barrow, Senior Adviser, New Financial

Jennifer has been a part time senior adviser to New Financial’s diversity programme since 2018. She was previously head of corporate responsibility for the Financial Conduct Authority for more than four years and runs her own D&I consultancy practice.

Sheenam Singhal, Research Analyst, New Financial

Sheenam has led data analysis on New Financial’s diversity research, including the Women in Finance Charter, since 2021. She previously worked at PwC in Delhi and has an MA in International Political Economy from Kings College London.

About New Financial

New Financial is a capital markets think tank. We provided data to the 2016 Gadhia review of senior women in financial services, Empowering Productivity, and we have been HM Treasury’s data partner monitoring the progress of signatories to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter since its launch.

We believe diversity is an essential part of running a sustainable business and a fundamental part of addressing cultural change. Our diversity research programme covers multiple aspects of diversity, culture and inclusion across the financial services industry, with a focus on diversity data and disclosure.
For more information or to offer feedback, please contact: yasmine.chinwala@newfinancial.org, +44 203 743 8268, www.newfinancial.org.

Acknowledgements

New Financial would like to thank all our institutional members for their support, particularly Nationwide, Aviva, London Stock Exchange Group and City of London Corporation for sponsoring our work on the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter.

© New Financial LLP 2026

All rights reserved

Summary

Highlights of the review

The impact of the Charter over the past decade

1) Female representation is increasing: The litmus test for the Charter is whether there are more women in senior management. Over 10 years, the average percentage of women in senior roles has risen slowly but consistently at one percentage point a year to 37% in 2025 for large signatories.

2) Signatories are hitting their targets: The second key indicator is whether firms are actually meeting their targets – 78% have hit their target at least once over the past decade. Targets are becoming more ambitious and the goal of parity is on the table.

3) Delivering productivity: The government has always positioned the Charter as a driver of productivity. Signatories are seeking to realise the strategic gains of increasing female representation via improved decision-making (74% of survey respondents) and to help them attract and retain talent (70%).

4) Driving sustainable change: Two thirds (67%) of large signatory respondents to our 2026 survey said that being part of the Charter had driven permanent, sustainable change in their organisation, rising to 75% when asked about the industry as a whole. Nearly three-quarters (73%) said they might not have advanced to the same degree without being a Charter signatory.

5) A business priority: Signatories said the biggest impacts of being a Charter signatory are maintaining focus on increasing female representation and promoting discussion at the highest levels of decision-making. The four principles together have changed the industry’s default position – gender diversity is now treated as a business issue that is integral to how business is run.

6) Setting a data standard: Annual reporting against Charter commitments over the past decade has helped embed a culture of transparency around diversity data reporting across the UK financial services industry , and inspired similar Charters at home and abroad.

The challenge ahead for the next 10 years of the Charter

1) Pipeline, transformation and momentum: The top three challenges identified by respondents to our signatory survey were lack of pipeline, organisational changes and sustaining momentum for action on female representation. The rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology ranked fifth.

2) Widening gap between top and fourth quartile: The gap between average female representation of the top and bottom quartiles has grown from 11 percentage points in 2018 to 19pp in 2025. The trailing pack will need to work hard to bridge the gap, but there is little evidence of that effort thus far.

3) Sectors progressing at different rates: The Charter data shows clear differences in progress across sectors. While insurers broke through the critical milestone of 40% on average in 2025, UK banks have plateaued at 38% since 2022. Meanwhile global banks are improving but have slowed.

4) A long path to parity: Our analysis estimates that the signatory cohort average will meet its current average target of 39% in 2032, but parity is still a generation away – estimated to be reached in 2054. For all signatories to reach 50%, signatories will need to add ~15,000 women in senior roles, which is a 40% increase on today.

5) Moving at more than one percentage point: The government wants to see the signatory average moving at more than 1pp per year by the end of this parliament (2029). The Charter data shows that 45% of signatories did exceed 1pp in 2025, however, only 37% of signatories surveyed said this was achievable within the next five years.

6) Reducing the gender pay gap: While the financial services sector has reduced its mean, median and bonus pay gaps since 2017, it still has the biggest pay gap of any industry in the UK. Both the mean and median pay gaps at 24% and 22% respectively are double the national average for UK companies.

Gwyneth Nurse, Director General of Financial Services, HM Treasury, said:

I am proud to have been leading the Treasury’s work on the Women in Finance Charter over the past ten years.  The ideas that lay behind the Charter remain as relevant now as they did ten years ago – a balanced workforce is more productive, more profitable and therefore good for growth. 

I look forward to working with Dame Debbie Crosbie as the new Champion and to continuing to drive this important agenda over the decade to come.

Timeline of the Charter

July 2015: Chancellor asks Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia to lead a review into the representation of women in senior roles in financial services.

March 2016: Gadhia review and the Women in Finance Charter launch at the Bank of England, with keynote from then-Governor, Mark Carney. Charter launches with 7 founding signatories.

June 2016: HM Treasury appoints New Financial as data partner to monitor progress of signatories to the Charter.

November 2016: Dame Jayne-Anne appointed as HM Treasury’s first Women in Finance Champion.

December 2016: New Financial produces first Charter analysis based on data from 71 signatories.

March 2018: Publication of the first Annual Review monitoring the progress of signatories. Charter grows to 100+ signatories.

June 2018: First Annual Review event at London’s Guildhall.

March 2019: Charter grows to 200+ signatories.

June 2020: Third Annual Review launch moves online due to Covid restrictions, Bank of England’s Governor Andrew Bailey speaks.

March 2021: Dame Amanda Blanc is the new Champion, and Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority, speaks at the Annual Review launch. Charter grows to 300+ signatories, signatory progress remains flat through pandemic.

June 2021: Publication of the Five Year Review.

March 2022: Annual Review data finds top quartile breaks through 40% female senior management and signatory progress surges to 2 percentage points. Dame Amanda launches the Women in Finance Charter Blueprint.

March 2025: A foreword by Rachel Reeves MP, the first female Chancellor, fronts the 8th Annual Review. The data shows 55% of all signatories hit their targets and insurers are the first large Charter sector to break through 40% average female representation.

June 2025: Focus on Acceleration report launches at the first in-person Charter event since the pandemic.

January 2026: Dame Debbie Crosbie succeeds Dame Amanda as Champion.

Ten years of the Women in Finance Charter in numbers

Impact of the Charter

• Rise in average level of female representation at senior management level for large signatories, 2017: 29%, 2025: 37%
• Percentage of all signatories that met their targets in 2017 and 2025, 2017: 32%, 2025: 55%
• Growing percentage of large signatories with a target of at least 40% female representation, 2017: 18%, 2025: 58%
• 78% - Percentage of signatories that have hit their target at least once over the past 10 years

Building the Charter data set

• Increase in number of signatories that reported on their Charter progress, 2017: 68,  2025: 361
• 16 - Total number of Charter reports
• 2,399 - Total number of signatory submissions
• Increase in total word count of signatory reporting, 2017: 33.5k, 2025: 235.3k

Growth of the Charter

• Growth in total population covered by the Charter, 2017: 0.07m, 2025: 1.19m
• Increase in number of female senior managers, 2017: 14.8k, 2025: 39.2k
• Increase in number of Accountable Executives, 2017: 69, 2025: 405

The Charter today

• 40% - Average female representation for insurers, the first large signatory sector to achieve this level
• 74% - Percentage of large signatories with a link to pay that said it is effective
• 45% - Percentage of large signatories that increased female representation in senior management by more than one percentage point
• 39% - Average target for large signatories

The Charter today

The Women in Finance Charter in 2026

The Charter launched in March 2016 with seven signatories. Ten years later, the Charter has ~400 signatories covering about 1.2 million employees across the sector. Not only has it grown, it has evolved and broken new ground.

High-level government backing: The Charter has retained strong government support since its inception. Successive Economic Secretaries to the Treasury have played an active role on the Charter, including directly addressing signatories via virtual Charter townhalls in 2025 and 2026. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is also a keen proponent of the Charter, providing forewords for recent reports.

High-level industry backing: HM Treasury has appointed Dame Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive of Nationwide, as Women in Finance Champion, taking over from Dame Amanda Blanc, Group Chief Executive of Aviva. Alongside the Champion, the Charter has a network of more than 400 named Accountable Executives across the signatory cohort advocating on its behalf.

Accountability: HM Treasury has published nine Annual Reviews monitoring signatory progress. Signatories take the reporting process seriously and it has become an established part of their corporate reporting cycle – despite being a voluntary initiative. The annual submission form itself has also adapted over the years, including adding a simplified version for smaller signatories, as well as topical questions on ethnicity, wider diversity data collection, impacts of Covid and flexible working.

Unique insight: The Charter dataset provides uniquely rich insight and benchmarking of data and innovative practice across the industry. The quality, quantity and granularity of reporting from companies has improved considerably year-on-year, and the depth and longevity of the dataset means we are able to examine trends and make predictions with greater confidence and accuracy.

Presence: Charter events have also grown every year, with the most recent virtual launch of the 2025 Annual Review watched by an audience of over 350 and the 2025 Focus on Acceleration live event attended by more than 200 people at London’s Guildhall.

Sphere of influence: The Charter has made an impact far beyond its original brief of increasing female representation in senior management across the UK financial services sector. The principles have been applied in multiple areas of diversity, and the framework has inspired several new Charters – a testament to the fact that the mechanism of the Charter does work. International versions of the Charter launched in Belgium in 2019, Norway in 2021, Ireland in 2022 and Luxembourg in 2023, and we have shared best practice on the Charter with finance ministries, central banks and industry bodies from around the world, including France, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, central Asia and Africa.

Signatory survey quotes

Bank of England:

Being a Charter signatory holds the Bank of England publicly accountable for its commitment to advancing female representation at senior levels and reducing the gender pay gap, while reinforcing a sustained focus on delivering against these objectives.

Nationwide:

At Nationwide, we know that improving gender balance strengthens how we perform, helps us better serve our customers, and supports sustainable growth for our business and the wider economy.

Financial Conduct Authority:

Increasing female representation in senior management matters at the FCA because we need to reflect the consumers we protect and the society we serve. Having more women in senior roles brings different views and experiences into the room, which helps to avoid group think and strengthens balanced decision making. More women in leadership roles also helps us attract new talent and retain female talent.

Aviva:

The Charter ensures focus and helped us to meet and exceed our targets. The insurance sector embraced the Charter and now has the best female representation in leadership in financial services.

State Street:

Progress is being driven by a range of stakeholders, particularly clients and employees, and is increasingly shaped by expectations that firms operate in a responsible, inclusive and transparent way.

Government momentum in the UK and EU

Over the past 10 years, successive UK governments have sustained their support for multiple reviews and legislation focusing on female representation on boards, senior management and public life, including the FTSE Women Leaders Review, Gender pay gap reporting, and of course the Women in Finance Charter.

The EU has also taken action, adopting the Women on Boards Directive in 2022, which sets 40% targets for both men and women. In addition, the EU’s recent Pay Transparency Directive mandated disclosure of pay ranges for job applicants, banned pay history questions and introduced gender pay gap reporting.

The current UK government has named women’s equality as a priority, and is supporting initiatives to find new ways for women to grow the economy. The Employment Rights Act 2025 compels employers to act to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, and larger employers will be required to publish action plans to advance equality of opportunity between men and women, such as closing the gender pay gap and supporting women through menopause. Ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting are also in the pipeline.

Specifically for the financial services sector, skills and talent is one of the five pillars of the UK government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, which cites the Women in Finance Charter. Rachel Reeves, the first female Chancellor, has actively supported the Charter, hosting events at No. 11 and contributing forewords to the 2024-25 Annual Reviews.

Regulators focus on conduct and consumers

While the UK financial regulators dropped their D&I policy plans last year, related work has continued. The Financial Conduct Authority launched the Consumer Duty in 2023, focussed on embedding fairness and transparency, and mandates firms to identify, support, and monitor outcomes for vulnerable customers.

The FCA has also extended the scope of the conduct rules to cover bullying, harassment or violence against colleagues, and its new Fit and Proper guidance clarifies how firms can take non-financial misconduct into account when assessing fitness and propriety. Similarly, in 2021 the European Central Bank added gender diversity considerations to its guide to fit and proper assessments, and it also added management body effectiveness and diversity to its supervisory priorities.

Overlaying stakeholder expectations

Customers and clients: Signatories ranked clients and customers second after employees for motivating their progress on D&I. Clients are asking more granular questions in relation to diversity and inclusion.

Retail businesses are particularly alive to this pressure as they strive to attract and retain customers who are increasingly vocal about their expectations – and this is reflected in the Charter data, with insurers and UK banks doing better on female representation than the wholesale sectors.

Society: There has been a fundamental shift in the societal discourse – amplified by social media – on wide ranging topics related to women’s issues, including sexual harassment, sexism, women’s health and domestic labour. Societal expectations have changed, and business is having to adapt.

Peers: The Charter benchmarking data clearly shows how sectors are doing, and signatories can see where they sit compared to their peers – no one wants to be at the back of the pack. 

Investors: After a pandemic boost, shareholder and investor engagement on D&I issues has become quieter in recent years. But there are still vocal advocates, such as the Asset Owner Diversity Charter, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Partly inspired by the Women in Finance Charter, its aim is to standardise D&I metrics, improve disclosure, and foster collaboration via its D&I questionnaire and toolkit.

Impact of the Charter: is it working?

The KPIs of Charter success

While there are multiple impacts and influences of the Charter across the financial services industry and beyond, there are two key indicators that define the success of the Charter:

• Is female representation increasing?
• Are signatories hitting their targets?

The answer on both counts is yes.

Since 2017, the average proportion of women in senior management has risen slowly but consistently from 29% to 37% in 2025 for large signatories. The pandemic caused a flat year in 2021 and there was a recovery surge in 2022, but overall growth has been one percentage point a year.

Every year, there are signatories meeting their targets, some in their deadline year, some early. Of the 381 signatories for which we have data, 78% have hit their target at least once over the past decade, 60% have hit their target at least twice, and 13% have hit their target at least six times. This is because many firms achieve their target and set a new, higher goal, moving towards 50%.

Why signatories care

The government has always positioned the Charter as a driver of productivity. To understand how signatories manifest this productivity gain, the survey asked why bringing more women into senior management was of strategic importance to their organisation. The most popular response given by 74% of respondents was to improve decision-making and counter groupthink, closely followed by attracting and retaining talent.

Signatory survey quotes

Progeny Group:

We view gender-diverse leadership as integral to building an inclusive culture, improving the quality of decisions, and sustaining a strong talent pipeline. It also strengthens trust with clients and candidates who increasingly expect visible leadership diversity.

Tandem:

It’s strategically important because it strengthens our ability to attract and retain talented people. Visible representation at senior levels signals fairness, opportunity and belonging, which supports recruitment, engagement and retention across the organisation.

Royal London:

Increasing female representation in senior roles ensures our leadership better reflects our customer-base and the society we serve, which, in turn, strengthens trust, relevance and decision making.

Impact of the Charter: at firm and industry level

A positive driving force

The Women in Finance Charter was launched to drive a fundamental change in how companies should approach diversity and inclusion – i.e. as a business issue. The four principles of the Women in Finance Charter present the challenge of increasing female representation just as business would treat any other strategic imperative – with a target, progress reporting and individual accountability, all incentivised by pay.

Of the large signatory respondents to the survey, 67% said the Charter had driven permanent sustainable change in their organisations, rising to 75% for the industry. Of those that said it was too early to tell, most anticipated a shift to sustainable change in the next five years.

Nearly all large signatories surveyed (97%) said their agenda to improve female representation had advanced over the past five years, and nearly three-quarters (73%) said they might not have advanced to the same degree without being a Charter signatory.

Signatory survey quotes

Nest:

We believe the Charter has played a significant role in driving permanent, sustainable change across the financial services industry. While participation is voluntary, public commitments have encouraged organisations to embed gender diversity more firmly into governance, talent pipelines and leadership expectations. As a result, the Charter has contributed to a more sustained and industry-wide improvement in female representation.

Daiwa Capital Markets Europe:

The Charter has helped move gender diversity from an aspirational goal to a core part of how organisations operate. While there is still more work to do to achieve full equity, the Charter has played an important role in establishing expectations, norms, and accountability that support sustainable, long term change across the industry.

St. James’s Place:

The Charter has contributed to more sustainable change by helping embed gender representation into leadership conversations, governance, and organisational priorities. The most durable change is where the Charter has supported stronger accountability and longer-term focus.

Impact of the Charter: benefits of being a signatory

Diversity firmly on the agenda

We may take it for granted now, but it is important to remember that getting the topic of the lack of senior women onto the corporate agenda has been a long and hard-fought battle. As D&I priorities have broadened over time, the Charter has played a vital role in keeping signatories’ attention on women.

When we asked signatories the biggest impact of being a Charter signatory on their organisation, maintaining focus on increasing female representation was the top answer for nearly two-thirds (65%) of survey respondents, closely followed by promoting discussion of female representation at the highest levels.

Both of these factors will be important touchstones for signatories as they increasingly operate in a world of transformation as usual, rather than business as usual.

Signatory survey quotes

NatWest Group:

The Charter has sustained our focus by strengthening external accountability and providing valuable opportunities to learn from peers navigating similar industry-wide challenges.

ClearBank:

Being a Women in Finance Charter signatory has helped maintain sustained focus on increasing female representation, particularly at senior levels, even where progress has been incremental.

Santander UK:

The Charter has supported a shift from focusing purely on representation to understanding the underlying drivers of progression and retention. This includes greater emphasis on sponsorship, access to critical roles, and ensuring equitable career opportunities, which are essential to delivering sustainable, long-term change. It has also strengthened collaboration across the sector, creating a shared sense of accountability and enabling organisations to learn from one another in a way that would not have been possible individually.

Impact of the Charter pillars: setting targets

How signatories’ approaches to target setting have changed

Setting and meeting targets is the bedrock of the Charter. Diversity targets are so ubiquitous now that it is hard to remember just how big an ask they were 10 years ago. Respondents to the signatories’ survey said target setting had by far the biggest impact of the four Charter principles.

The Charter offers signatories the flexibility to choose their own targets and deadlines, recognising the variety of organisations, sectors and differing starting points. Despite this flexibility, over time signatories have shifted towards an ambitious consensus. Now 58% of signatories have a target of at least 40% female representation, of which a third have already met their targets and 30 signatories have 50% targets.

Evolution of targets over 10 years

In the early years of the Charter:

• Difficult to get senior buy-in to set targets for female representation
• Inexperience around making targets public
• Little data to inform approaches to target setting, either internally or external benchmarking
• Setting a deadline with intermittent monitoring
• One standalone  target in place

In the latter years of the Charter:

• Widespread adoption of targets across multiple diversity strands
• Diversity targets treated as a business KPI, with fluency on accompanying comms
• Targets based on complex modelling of multiple datapoints
• Charter data provides peer benchmarking
• Regularly scheduled tracking and iterative feedback on progress
• Target(s) becoming part of a basket of D&I metrics

Signatory survey quotes

Paragon Banking Group:

Clear targets drove focus and action in recruitment, promotion and succession planning, contributing directly to improved female representation and exceeding our 40% target.

British Business Bank:

The Charter Annual Review made recommending new targets relatively easy, it enabled us to recalibrate our definition of senior leaders and set tiered targets at ExCo, ExCo-1 and ExCo-2 for achievement in September 2028.

Financial Ombudsman Service:

Setting targets gives us something to work towards. Knowing we have to report externally helps us to stay accountable and also helps us to stay transparent internally.

Octopus Investments:

Setting a clear senior management target has been the biggest driver of prioritisation and sustained focus.

Impact of the Charter pillars: reporting progress

Fostering transparency

All signatories are required to submit an update on their progress against their Charter commitments every September confidentially to HM Treasury. This data is then compiled and analysed to produce an Annual Review. After targets, signatory survey respondents scored reporting progress as the second most impactful of the Charter principles.

The process of actively monitoring signatory progress and the resulting dataset has set the Charter apart from similar voluntary initiatives. The dataset of both quantitative and qualitative information submitted by signatories to HM Treasury has grown from a total of 33,000 words in 2017 to almost 250,000 in 2025, and both quantity and quality have transformed over the past 10 years.

Signatory survey quotes

Royal London:

External reporting reinforces accountability, enhances transparency, and enables constructive challenge, sustaining momentum and supporting delivery of our ambitions over time.

Aberdeen:

The Charter principle of external reporting of progress against gender diversity has driven a culture, not just in our organisation but in the wider industry, of greater transparency.

British International Investment:

The four requirements of the Charter drive accountability, awareness and conversation which are key to making progress towards targets. There is also a sense of healthy competition with increased visibility to benchmarks; and the opportunity to learn from others’ successes is invaluable.

Financial Conduct Authority:

External reporting has strengthened transparency, while setting targets for female representation has provided clear direction and ambition. Collectively, the principles have supported long term structural change rather than isolated interventions. This has supported strong governance and a sustained focus on diversity reporting, including gender outcomes across performance and talent reviews.

Evolution of signatory reporting over 10 years

In the early years of the Charter:

• Inexperience around reporting D&I data, lack of understanding of what to report and how
• Inadequate data of variable quality sitting in silos
• Publishing Charter progress on signatory websites inconsistent and irregular

In the latter years of the Charter:

• Confidence in both quantitative and qualitative D&I reporting, incorporating a wide range of datapoints, supporting evidence and clear narrative
• Regular reporting both internally and externally to meet increased demand for D&I data across multiple diversity strands and audiences
• Charter updates become part of the annual reporting cycle, increasingly aligned to gender pay gap reporting

Impact of the Charter pillars: reporting data on actions

Reporting on actions to support targets

Every financial services firm, whether they are a Charter signatory or not, wants to know what they need to do to drive female representation, and (often more importantly) what their peers are doing. While the Charter is not prescriptive regarding the actions signatories should take to achieve their targets, all signatories report on their top actions to HM Treasury annually, and this data is then distilled into the Annual Review.

Over the past decade, the quality and quantity of signatory reporting has become immensely rich and offers unique insight into the wide range of interventions signatories are making and how their patterns of activity have evolved across the four core areas the actions analysis monitors – retention and promotion, recruitment, embedding D&I into business as usual, and behaviour and culture.

During the course of the first five years, two clear shifts occurred. Firstly, signatories priority focus was on recruitment activity, but over time organisations slowly realised they couldn’t simply recruit their way to success, and intent shifted towards retention and promotion and behaviour and culture. Secondly, firms moved away from generic programmes to the introduction of targeted, granular interventions underpinned by more rigorous monitoring to measure the impact of actions.

More recently, the Charter time series data has shown that while the list of actions has remained largely unchanged, there are differences in impact due to how signatories execute these actions.

Our 2023 analysis of signatories moving at a much faster pace than the cohort average identified four keys to success:

• Taking a data-led approach – improving the use of data to inform decision-making and track progress and impact of initiatives.
• Being strategic – positioning diversity initiatives as central to achieving business objectives.
• Increasing accountability – increasing accountability and transparency to ensure initiatives are implemented robustly.
• Innovation – learning from experience, recognising gaps and trying something new.

These four factors are essential for organisations to accelerate progress.

Evolution of signatory actions over 10 years

In the early years of the Charter:

• Little data
• Lack of evidence-based decision-making
• Ad hoc, standalone D&I initiatives
• Actions led, delivered and owned by HR and networks
• One size fits all approach to learning and development, programme design and initiatives
• Measuring inputs (e.g. number on development programmes)
• Introduction of policies with little communication or follow-up
• Few consequences for non-adherence to policies, process and practice
• Lack of reward for those who actively foster D&I

In the latter years of the Charter:

• Comprehensive D&I dashboards monitoring progress, impact and revealing areas of concern
• Clear strategy, aligned with business priorities
• Actions and delivery owned by the business
• Variety of options designed to meet the needs of different groups and levels of seniority
• Awareness of intersectionality
• Measuring outputs (e.g. number promoted after12 months)
• Policy review framework in place alongside monitoring of impact and uptake across the whole business
• “Comply or explain” approaches for key areas
• Clear D&I-related expectations built into performance and pay frameworks

Impact of the Charter pillars: Accountable Executive

How the role of the Accountable Executive has changed

All Charter signatories must name an Accountable Executive (AE) who is responsible for gender diversity and inclusion. The concept of allocating an AE was inspired by the launch of the Senior Manager Regime by UK financial regulators in 2016.

In the early years of the Charter, most AE activity focused on speaking at events to raise awareness and the profile of the Charter with senior leadership and across the business. Other activities included mentoring women and working with D&I councils and networks.

Over time, signatories’ annual reporting showed a step change in the AE role to holding the business to account against diversity targets and actions to achieve them. In the 2025 Annual Review, over half of signatories reported that their AEs were instrumental in driving accountability – by reviewing data dashboards, presenting progress reports to their boards, pushing for diversity objectives to be part of performance reviews and fighting for budget to fund actions.

Sift in AE profile and influence

For most of the past decade, AEs tended to be men who sat in revenue-generating roles and were members of the executive committee. However, in the past couple of years, the proportion of female AEs has risen from 30% in 2020 to 47% in 2025, and only 38% of female AEs hold revenue-generating positions (compared to 75% of male AEs). Nearly half (47%) of female AEs work in HR.

The percentage of AEs in HR roles has also increased from 13% in 2020 to 31% in 2025, and the proportion of AEs who are CEOs has dropped from 47% in 2023 to 32% in 2025. The percentage of AEs who do not sit on the board or exco has risen from less than 1% in 2021 to 8% in 2025.

 Analysis from the last two years of data indicates that what an individual does to execute their role as AE differs based on their job, their sex and sphere of influence. AEs with HR responsibilities often focus on talent-related activities such as pipeline, flexible working and menopause policy enhancements rather than high-level accountability responsibilities such as reporting progress to the board.

While having more women in senior roles should lead to more signatories having female AEs, and signatories may have strategic reasons for shifting the AE role to the HR function, it is important for the Charter work to remain business focused.

Time will tell whether this growing trend has an impact on future progress.

Evolution of the Accountable Executive over 10 years

In the early years of the Charter:

• Men
• CEOs
• Generic advocacy
• Speaking at events
• Supporting women’s network groups
• Mentoring women

In the latter years of the Charter:

• More women
• More HR roles
• Reporting to the board
• Holding peers to account
• Securing budget for initiatives
• Chairing D&I Councils
• Overseeing organisational progress
• Sponsoring women

Impact of the Charter pillars: link to pay

Getting to grips with the link to pay

From its inception, the Charter requirement to link senior executive pay to gender diversity targets has been the most controversial and challenging for signatory firms to apply, but arguably it is the most effective for ensuring diversity is treated as a business issue, particularly in the financial services industry.

In the early years, firms reported scant detail and the link was modest, but 2020 marked a step change as signatories’ approaches matured and reporting significantly improved. A critical mass of progressive signatories were treating diversity as they would any other strategic objective and expecting senior leaders to deliver.

In the last two years, while there has been a drop in the proportion of firms that have a link to pay, three-quarters of those that do said the link was effective, and the level of effectiveness has remained steady. Signatory reporting has continued to be more granular, indicating increased confidence. The link to pay remains valuable in driving impactful behaviour and holding managers to account.

Signatory survey quote

Anonymous:

Pay linkage remains the most challenging principle to implement robustly, yet it is arguably the principle most likely to drive genuine behavioural change if applied rigorously. The sector’s collective difficulty in implementing it may itself be diagnostic - organisations find it easier to report on change than to financially commit to it.

The challenge ahead – what signatories tell us

The top 10 challenges signatories face in meeting their Charter commitments

We surveyed signatories on the challenges they expect to face in meeting their Charter commitments and driving sustainable change. Below are the top 10 themes from the responses (by frequency of mention).

1) Lack of pipeline: The most common challenge, raised by a third of respondents, was an inadequate pipeline of women coming through the ranks, and concern about the amount of time and effort required to develop talent internally.

2) Organisational change: A quarter of signatories cited organisational changes – such as restructuring, rapid growth of business lines where women are under-represented, and mergers and acquisitions – could impact their ability to meet their targets. This challenge has risen from ninth in 2023’s survey.

3) Sustaining momentum: More than a fifth of firms said maintaining momentum for action across the organisation has become harder, especially for those firms with a global footprint, and will become more so in the years ahead due to shifting business priorities.

4) Shortage of diverse talent: A shortage of diverse talent in recruitment pools – particularly in technology and investment roles – was cited by one in five respondents as an ongoing challenge, compounded by fierce competition for candidates in senior roles.

5) AI and tech: A new challenge voiced by one in seven survey respondents is the rapid advance of AI and tech, which is reshaping mid-level and senior roles and feeds off predominantly male candidate pools. 

6) Economic climate and external landscape: Just under 15% of signatories mentioned concerns about the economic environment and unpredictable market conditions. A similar number of signatories cited the challenge of operating against a more complex geopolitical and societal environment.

7) Low turnover in senior roles and impact of small numbers: One in nine signatories said a limited number of senior roles and low natural turnover of roles was a significant issue, particularly for smaller firms. The departure of just one woman could dramatically impact their ratios of women to men.

8) Workplace culture and flexibility: Some respondents felt that achieving sustainable change requires a broader shift in culture towards a more inclusive mindset and outlook. Similarly, others were concerned that expectations of always being available or fully office-based (especially at senior levels) can disproportionately affect women, many of whom still carry a greater share of caring responsibilities.

9) Leadership accountability: A small number of survey participants voiced concern about the impact of a change in leadership on embedding consistent accountability across all leaders to ensure ownership is understood and actively driven at every level. 

10) Competing diversity priorities: While 68% of large signatories said increasing female representation was strategically important to them, some felt increased competition for resource and airtime from across the wider D&I agenda could impact Charter targets.

Signatory survey quotes

Standard Chartered:

Our focus is on sustaining momentum and accountability over the long-term, particularly through periods of organisational change, ensuring Charter commitments are consistently embedded in day-to-day decision-making.

Nationwide:

The growing use of AI in organisations is happening at pace and is reshaping senior roles within financial services. We need to make deliberate and thoughtful interventions to ensure women have equitable access to critical initiatives and sponsorship to build a future ready and balanced leadership pipeline.

Legal & General:

Female representation is not the only consideration for organisations, improving other minority representation and other factors relating to inclusion and broader employee wellbeing is equally important and also requires focus and effort.

The challenge ahead – what the data tells us

The bigger picture

Alongside the challenges identified by signatories’ survey responses, the Charter time series data illustrates ongoing wider structural issues that will also require attention:

• sector differences;
• a widening gap between the top and bottom quartile;
• a long path to parity.

Since the 2022 Annual Review, we have tracked Charter signatories by sector and by quartile. The data shows insurers broke through the critical milestone of 40% on average representation in 2025, the first of the four key Charter sectors to do so. However, UK banks have plateaued, and the global banks are improving but have slowed. For the 381 signatories which we have data, 40% have missed their target at least once.

The gap between the top and bottom quartile has grown from 11 percentage points to 19, and the trailing pack will need to step up as the leaders slow on the glide path to parity. Without acceleration, we estimate that the cohort average will achieve 50% in 2054, and the global banks in 2075. For all signatories to reach parity, the cohort as a whole needs to add ~15,000 women, which is a 40% increase on today.

Signatory survey quote

Bank of England:

The Charter has helped drive positive progress towards a fairer and more balanced financial services industry. However, progress has been gradual, and organisations are likely to face further challenges as the sector evolves—particularly given lower female representation in areas such as technology and AI, slower recruitment pipelines, and broader shifts in workforce dynamics and attitudes towards diversity initiatives. It remains important for the Charter to maintain a clear focus on improving the representation of women across financial services.

## The challenge ahead – acceleration

More than one percentage point

In January 2025, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury said the government wants to see the signatory cohort’s average female representation level increase by more than one percentage point by the end of this parliament (ie. summer 2029). At the current 1pp per year uptick, we estimate parity for the cohort average would not be achieved until 2045.

We asked signatories whether increasing the level of women in senior roles at more than 1pp within the next five years was achievable – half of respondents said it was for the industry, slightly less at 47% had faith in their sector, and only 37% felt their own organisation could rise to the challenge.

Signatory survey quotes

Skipton Building Society:

Impact takes time – and at times positive changes that have been implemented within organisations take a while to show impact. Based on the trajectory so far of one percentage point per year this is possible, but will require sustainable continued action.

Ageas UK:

There is clear commitment and intent to drive change. The key consideration is the long‑term sustainability of progress, which can be influenced by external factors – including the wider political and regulatory landscape and its impact on organisational priorities.

ClearBank:

For our organisation and the wider sector, achieving an average increase of more than one percentage point per year may be possible in some years, but sustaining this consistently will depend on addressing underlying pipeline, progression and structural issues, rather than relying on short‑term interventions. Progress is therefore likely to be uneven across firms and over time. 

At an industry‑wide level, achieving this level of increase on average across all signatories is unlikely within the next five years, given the scale and complexity of the challenge, the diversity of starting positions, and the time required for systemic and senior‑level change to embed.

The challenge ahead – reducing the gender pay gap

Tackling gaps in representation and pay

The UK government wants to increase the number of women in the workforce, ensure those currently employed remain in full-time secure roles that match their skills, and close the gender pay gap. The Charter has a vital role to play in achieving these priorities for the UK financial services industry.

While the sector has reduced its mean, median and bonus pay gaps since 2017, it still has the biggest pay gap of any industry in the UK. Both the mean and median pay gaps at 24% and 22% respectively are double the national average for UK companies. The gap is largely due to higher representation in the fourth quartile by pay (reaching 57%) and much lower representation in the top quartile at just 31%.

This lower representation in the best paid roles is precisely what the Charter is focused on. In recent years, a small but growing number of signatories have brought their Charter and gender pay gap reporting together – and this may well increase as the government takes steps towards compulsory gender pay gap action plans.

Signatory survey quotes

Sedgwick International UK:

The biggest impact of the Charter has been the focus at Exec level and promoting awareness within the business, linking in with our Gender Pay Gap.

AXA XL:

Where we have seen positive progress in Women In Finance submissions, progress against Gender Pay Gap closure is slow and so it would be important to monitor progress over the next five years to ensure actions are really having an impact on the sector as a whole.

Congratulations to all signatories that have met their targets over the past 10 years

Aberdeen

ABN Amro UK

Addleshaw Goddard

Admiral Group

AE3 Media

Aegon Asset Management

Aegon UK Corporate Services

Ageas UK

AIB UK

Aldermore Group

AllianceBernstein

Allianz Global Investors

Allianz UK

Allica Bank

AMC Executive Search

American Express

Amundi UK

Anglia Capital

ANZ Banking Group

Aquis Exchange

Ark Investment Management

Armstrong Wolfe

Artemis Investment Management

Association for Financial Markets in Europe

 Association of Accounting Technicians

 Association of British Insurers

Atom Bank

Aviva Avyse Partners

AXA Investment Managers

AXA UK

AXA XL

Bank of America

Bank of Ireland (Retail UK)

Bank of London and The Middle East

Barcadia Media

Barclays

BDO

Beaufort Group Consulting

Beazley

Beckett Investment Management

Berry & Oak Bespoke - Advice Limited

Better Society Capital

BlackRock UK

Blakeney Partners

Bluestone Leasing

BMW Financial Services GB

Brickendon Consulting

Bridging Finance Solutions

Brightstar Financial

British Business Bank

British Friendly Society

British Insurance Brokers’ Association

British International Investment

Brooks Macdonald

Brown Shipley

Building Societies Association

Bupa

Cambridge & Counties Bank

Cambridge Associates

Cambridge Building Society

Campbell & Fletcher

Canaccord Genuity Asset Management

Canaccord Genuity Wealth

Canada Life

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Canopius

Capital Credit Union

Capital One Europe

Carrington Wealth Management

Castlefield Partners

CG Wealth Planning

Channel Islands Adjusters

Charles Stanley

Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment

Chartered Insurance Institute

Chaucer Group

City Hive

City of London Corporation

ClearBank

ClientTree Group

Close Brothers Group

CNA Hardy

Collinson Group

Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Connect IFA

Coreco Group

Covéa Insurance

Coventry Building Society

Credit Services Association

Cubefunder

Cumberland Building Society

Danske Bank (UK)

Darlington Building Society

Deloitte

Deutsche Bank

Direct Line Group

Ecclesiastical Insurance

EdAid

Electron Capital Partners

Ellis Davies Financial Planning

Enra Specialist Finance

Enterprise Investment Scheme Association

EQ Investors

Federated Hermes

Fidelity International

Fiduciam Nominees

Finance & Leasing Association

 Financial Conduct Authority

Financial Reporting Council

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

FinTech Strategic Advisory

First Central Group

First Wealth (London)

Fleet Mortgages

Flood Re

Foresight Group

Foster Denovo

Francis Clark Financial Planning

Freedom Services

Funding Circle

Furness Building Society

GAAPweb

Goldman Sachs International

Gooding Accounts

Goodman Corporate Finance

Grant Thornton

H/ Advisors

Cicero

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hartsfield Group

Hastings Insurance Services

Helen Williamson Financial Planning

Hinckley and Rugby Building Society

HM Treasury

Hope Capital

HSBC UK

HW Global Talent Partner

 ICG

 IM Asset Management

Innovate Finance

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

 Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland

 Institute of Legal Finance & Management

 Intact Insurance

Interactive Investor

International Swaps & Derivatives Association

Invesco

Investec Bank

Investing Ethically

Investment Association

IRESS

Jane Smith Financial Planning

Janus Henderson Investors

JM Finn

JP Morgan Chase & Co

Jupiter Asset Management

Just Group

Kensington Mortgage Company

Landbay

Lazard and Co

Lazard Asset Management

LDNfinance

Leeds Building Society

Leek Building Society

LifeSearch

Lloyd’s of London

Lomond Wealth

London Capital Credit Union

London Stock Exchange Group

Lowell

LV=

Macquarie Group (EMEA)

Magenta Financial Planning

 Man Group

Market Harborough Building Society

Marsden Building Society

Marsh Services

Mastercard Worldwide International Markets

Melton Building Society

Mercantile Trust

Mercer

Mercia Asset Management

MetLife

Metro Bank

Mizuho London

Monzo Bank

Morgan Stanley International

Morningstar

Mortgages for Business

Motor Insurers’ Bureau

MT Finance

MUFG

Mustard Seed Impact

MWA Financial Advice

Nacional Financiera

National Savings and Investments

NatWest Group

Nest

New Leaf Search

New World Financial Group

Newcastle Building Society

NFU Mutual

Ninety One

Nomura International

Northern Trust (UK branch)

Nottingham Building Society

Nucleus Financial Platforms Group

Octopus Investments

OneFamily

OSB Group

Paragon Banking Group

Partners Credit Union

Payment Systems Regulator

Pension Protection Fund

Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association

People’s Partnership

Pepper Advantage UK

Personal Investment Management and Financial Advice Association

Post Office

Principality Building Society

Progressive Building Society

Prudential

Prytania Solutions

Quilter

Rathbones Group

Redwood Bank

Royal Bank of Canada

Saffron Building Society

Sainty, Hird & Partners

Santander UK

Sapphire Capital Partners

Sayer Haworth

Schroders

Scottish Equity Partners

Scotwest Credit Union

Secure Trust Bank

Sesame Services

Seven Investment Management

Shepherd Global

Shepherds Friendly Society

Skipton Building Society

SMBC Bank International and SMBC Nikko Capital Markets

Societe Generale

South West Business Finance

St. James’s Place

Standard Life

Starling Bank

State Street

Stifel Nicolaus Europe

Stonehage Fleming Services

Stonehaven International

 StriveX

Sturgeon Ventures

Swansea Building Society

Swoop Funding

Tatton Asset Management

The Charity Bank

The Co-operative Bank

The Fiser Group

The Openwork Partnership

The Sturgeon Group

TheCityUK

Tokio Marine Kiln Insurance Services

TotallyMoney

TP ICAP

Tribe Impact Capital

Triodos Bank UK

TSB

Uinsure

UK Finance

UK Government Investments

UK Private Capital

Ultimate Banking

Unity Trust Bank

Unum

Vanguard Asset Services

VCCP Roar

Vida Bank

Virgin Money

Visa Europe

Vitality Corporate Services

Warren Partners

Wave Community Bank

Wealth Matters

Wellington Management International

Wesleyan Assurance Society

West Bromwich Building Society

Whyfield

Willis Owen

XPS Pensions

Yorkshire Building Society

Zebedee Capital Partners

Zopa Bank

Zurich Insurance UK

Calls to action

HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter seeks to improve the representation of women in senior positions in UK financial services, thereby improving the sector’s productivity, competitiveness, innovation, and ultimately driving economic growth. At this 10th anniversary milestone, the Charter indicators remain strong, measurable progress has been made, and the Charter has proved its worth – but we cannot be complacent. Here are the Charter leaders’ five calls to action to propel the Charter forward through the next decade and deliver sustainable change:

1) Be strategic: Maintain focus on improving female representation by positioning diversity as central to achieving key business objectives, including better decision-making and attracting and retaining talent.

2) Focus on acceleration: Shift gear – those moving in tiny increments need to accelerate, and those going backwards must course correct. The government wants to see the signatory average increase at more than one percentage point within the next three years.

3) Leverage the Charter: Use the insights, peer intelligence and best practice from the Charter to learn from one another to accelerate progress.

4) Take the lead: Drive this agenda as business leaders at the most senior levels. Leaders will need to be more thoughtful and inclusive than ever to meet the demands of AI, tech transformation, and the demands of the changing external landscape.

5) Be bold and innovate: Have the courage to do things differently so that we can deliver a different outcome for the benefit all colleagues, both men and women. Be bold, kick the tyres, experiment and innovate.

Methodology

Data sources

This review analyses three main data sources:

2026 signatories’ survey

HM Treasury invited all active Charter signatories to participate in the 2026 signatories’ survey, which was open April – May 2026. We received a total of 220 responses, including 138 large and 82 SME signatories. We are very grateful to all the survey participants for taking the time to share their views.

Charter Annual Review data

This research references the past 10 years of annual review data based on the updates signatories provide to HM Treasury every year, as well as the four previous signatory surveys conducted between 2017 and 2023.

Gender pay gap data

The latest gender pay gap data was downloaded from the government’s portal on 06/04/2026. The national average data includes all companies that submitted GPG reporting, from which we selected a sample of 479 financial services companies (based on the criteria of having more than 250 employees and conducting regulated financial services activities).

The survey analysis is based on the full cohort of respondents, or only large signatories depending on each question’s relevance to the SME signatories. This is due to the differing profile of SME signatories compared to large signatories (ie. SMEs have high targets, high levels of female representation and 75% of this group have already hit their targets).

All data has been anonymised and aggregated, and no data has been attributed without the relevant signatory’s consent.