2012 CWDI Report: Women Board Directors of the Largest Banks and Financial Institutions Globally

2012 CWDI Report:
Women Board Directors of the Largest Banks and Financial Institutions Globally

The 2012 CWDI Report on Women Board Directors of the Largest Banks and Financial Institutions Globally focuses on 93 largest banks represented in the Fortune Global 200 companies. The study found that women held 15.6% of all board seats in the F200 listing.

Key Findings

• Good News: The world’s largest banks and financial services companies, as a whole, fare better than other companies in placing women on their Boards of Directors. 15.6% of directors on the boards of the world’s 93 largest banks are women compared to 13.8% women’s representation in the Fortune Global 200 companies.
• Bad News: The boardrooms of these companies are still dominated by men who occupy 84.4% of the board seats.
• Good News:The majority of the largest banks and financial services companies have at least one woman on their Board of Directors– 86%, or 80 of the 93 financial institutions.
• Bad News: 13 (14%) of the world’s 93 largest banks and financial services companies still do not have any female presence in the boardroom.
• Good News: Banks have made progress in naming women to board seats —16.5% of board seats held by women — an increase of 6.2% over the 10.3% women’s representation in CWDI’s 2005 study of the largest global banks.
• Bad News: With an annual growth rate of 1%, women will not have an equal place on the boards of the largest banks until the year 2047.
• Over 1/3 of the banks and financial services companies (32) in the listing have reached the critical mass of three or more women directors.
• Quotas make a difference. Banks and Financial Services companies based in countries with quotas for women directors have a higher percentage of women directors (20.4%) than the average overall percentage of 15.6%.
• Gender Diversity requirements in corporate governance codes make a difference. Banks and financial services in the FT Global 500 based in countries with gender diversity language in their corporate governance codes had a higher percentage of women directors at 23.9%. This is why European companies are the pacesetters in this study given proactive strategies in place – whether through legal mandates or governance code requirements.
• Women CEOs make a difference. Women-led banks (Westpac, ICICI, Bank of Montreal and SEB) had almost double the number of women directors on their board (31% vs. 15.6%) and in senior management (23.6% vs. 12.2%) than peer companies.
• Westpac Bank of Australia leads the Top Ten Companies with the highest percentage of female directors (44.4%), or four women directors out of nine. France is the only country with three companies in the Top Ten – BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale, largely due to quotas.
• The United States and China, the two countries with the most companies in the listing are not leaders in changing board composition. The USA’s 18 companies were just above the 15.6% average at 15.8%. China’s 12 companies were below average at 12.3%.