December Message from our President

It has been an incredibly busy and successful end to the year for WIBF. Our collaboration with corporate member, Lloyds, with Digital Leaders for the fascinating 17% Banking on Diversity in Tech conference expanded my vision on what is possible tech-wise and diversity-wise.

“END OF YEAR HOT TOPICS AND HIGHLIGHTS

It has been an incredibly busy and successful end to the year for WIBF. Our collaboration with corporate member, Lloyds, with Digital Leaders for the fascinating 17% Banking on Diversity in Tech conference expanded my vision on what is possible tech-wise and diversity-wise. You can read more here.

You can also watch a highlights video here.

An evening with the authors of The Glass Wall: Success Strategies for Women at Work – and Businesses that Mean Business, Sue Unerman and Kathryn Jacob, gave all attendees inspiration and practical advice for their careers.

In response to feedback from our corporate members for timely discussions on the industry’s hot topics, we held a roundtable for corporate members on the Gender Pay Gap report, chaired by Marian Bloodworth, Employment Law partner at Kemp Little LLP and member of the WIBF Advisory Board with Petra Wilton, Director of Strategy and External Affairs, Chartered Management Institute, and Doug Brown, Chief Data Scientist, Employee Benefits, Capita. Generously hosted by RBC, it was an extremely effective session, and WIBF is grateful to the contributors for sharing their knowledge so usefully for our benefit.

All of WIBF’s events aim to develop knowledge, inform opinion and enable valuable networking. There is much work going on individually, in groups, and by organisations to improve diversity in our industry and to provide us with the tools to do so. In this way, these are hopeful times.

I met this week with the Economic Secretary to HM Treasury, Stephen Barclay MP, for a frank discussion about the progress of the Women in Finance Charter and his plans and concerns for the sector. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with HMT, and exploring ways to work more closely together to transform gender diversity within banking and financial services; a most positive meeting!

THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP

Citi released a significant and impressive report this month, ‘Women in the Economy II; How Implementing a Women’s Economic Empowerment Agenda Can Shape the Global Economy?’ The report looks closely at the economic case for female economic empowerment with fresh insights on the key issues, together with a series of country case studies. The report’s authors believe that achievable reductions in workplace gender inequalities could perhaps add 6% to GDP in the advanced economies over one or two decades.

WIBF and Citi are planning an event for 2018 with the report’s author, Tina Fordham, Chief Global Political Analyst at Citi, to explore this report in detail. It will be fascinating – join us!

WIBF AWARDS FOR ACHIEVEMENT 2018 – NOMINATIONS OPEN

It is time to recognise and celebrate the inspirational men and women who are inspiring, leading and driving increased gender diversity in our sector with the 2018 WIBF Awards for Achievement.

2018 sees the introduction of a new award, ‘The WIBF Rising Star Award,’ celebrating those women who have been in the finance industry for five years or less, but have absolutely left their mark on their organisation and on their colleagues. There is no age limit for this award. The WIBF Rising Star Award sits alongside our WIBF Award for Achievement, WIBF Champion for Women, WIBF Young Professional and WIBF Team Diversity awards. Full details of the awards and how to nominate are on this page.

Do note the closing date for nominations is Wednesday 28th February 2018. Please share with your colleagues and networks.

Who will you nominate?

#WIBFAwards

MERRY CHRISTMAS

With the Christmas season fast approaching, I would like to take this opportunity to wish each of you a wonderful Christmas and I hope that you enjoy the time with your families and friends.

Vivienne Artz
WIBF President“