Give your top job to a woman, MPs tell RBS and the Bank of England
P R E S S URE i s mo u n t i n g on the Bank of England and Royal Bank of Scotland to put women at the top of their organisations.
MPs and campaigners last night called on Chancellor Philip Hammond – who will play a vital role in choosing the next Bank governor – and the board of RBS to seize the ‘perfect opportunity’ to appoint women to t wo of t he most important positions in British banking.
As both bodies began recruitment drives they were urged to ‘ look beyond the usual suspects’ and create powerful role models for the next generation of women working in finance.
Alison Rose, who runs RBS’s corporate and private bank, is hotly tipped as the heir apparent to current chief executive Ross McEwan.
Meanwhile, several women have been named as potential successors to Mark Carney at the Bank of Engl and, i ncluding Santander UK chairwoman Shriti Vadera, former Bank deputy governor Minouche Shafik and Sharon White, t he chief executive of telecoms watchdog Ofcom.
However, banking insiders told The Mail on Sunday that both Rose and the female candidates at the Bank of England are facing significant challenges to get the job.
Rachel Reeves, chairwoman of the Commons business select committee, said: ‘Each of the 120 people to have served as the Bank of England governor have been men.
‘ There are plenty of fantastic women economists and we’ve had women at the helm of the IMF and the US central bank. It’s time we caught up at the Bank of England and looked beyond the usual line-up and appointed a brilliant woman economist to this important job.’
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: ‘ It would be good if both jobs went to a woman – and there are several good women around. Minouche Shafik would be very good.’
Brenda Trenowden, chairwoman of influential pressure group the 30% Club, said search firms needed to ‘cast the net wide’ when interviewing candidates. She said: ‘Sometimes when people are looking for these roles, they’ll look to a group of usual suspects and people will talk about things like “executive presence” and “gravitas”.
‘Actually what you need is someone with the right experience. It’s important for us to have more women in these roles because when people t hi nk of t he Bank of England governor or RBS CEO they just automatically think of men. We need to break down those stereotypes.’
Hammond is thought to favour a candidate for the Bank of England post with a strong pedigree in economics who is well known on the global banking circuit.
White studied economics at Cambridge, Baroness Vadera was a Labour Minister under Gordon Brown and studied Politics, Philosphy and Economics at Oxford, and Shafik is director of the London School of Economics. They are set to go up against bookies’ favourite Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority regulator, the Bank’s deputy governor Ben Broadbent and its chief economist Andy Haldane.
The Bank of England was criticised for a lack of diversity earlier this year when The Mail on Sunday revealed its gender pay gap had grown. The Bank pays its male employees an average of 24.6 per cent more than their female colleagues and it has only one woman on its interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.
Amanda Mackenzie, non-executive director at Lloyds, said: ‘ It would be fabulous if both of these roles went to women. The more women get these opportunities, the more it becomes normal.’
Charlotte Valeur, chairwoman of business lobby group the Institute of Directors said diverse leadership teams get the best results. She said: ‘Ask yourself whether decisions are being made purely on merit if the job at the top always goes to a man.’