Posted on by Sheena Gillett

Press Release 

PIMFA – a proud signatory of HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter 

 

13th November 2017

PIMFA1, the leading trade association for the personal investment management and financial advice sector in the UK, is one of the latest organisations to sign HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter2.

The Charter’s aim is to work together to build a fairer, more balanced industry – highlighting that a balanced workforce is good for ‘business, customers, profitability and workplace culture, and is increasingly attractive for investors’.

Research such as the 2015 report from McKinsey consultants has demonstrated the benefits seen by diverse organisations who actually perform better – respondents in the top quartile for gender diversity were “15 per cent more likely to produce better returns than their local peers. Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity were even more likely to do better.  The same applied at the bottom end of the scale — less diverse companies were less likely to do well”. This pattern was also borne out across industries – “for every 10 per cent improvement in gender diversity, firms saw a 2-4 per cent increase in profits.”

As part of this commitment PIMFA will run regular fora over the year to address key issues in the diversity area. One series is our Women in Wealth Forum and another is our Millennial Forum. The aim of both of these is to help understand how the business culture in the financial services sector affects different segments of our community and how we can see ways to improve both conditions of work and quality of life for all categories of employee.

It is important to recognise the industry’s need to adapt as working lifestyles change and we believe the industry is embracing the positive movement towards work/life balance with flexible working, returnships, part time working etc.  This kind of approach to work is taking root especially as technology develops and makes it easier to work from home or conduct meetings by video rather than necessarily always in person.  The increased use of technological changes to help improve and diversify the nature of the work experience and input is a pointer to the future.

Liz Field, CEO at PIMFA commented saying: “We need to ‘up’ the conversation on diversity in the sector.  Diversity has proven benefits and we intend to lead the way in emphasising this through our signing of the Charter.

We are committed to developing a culture of diversity and sophistication of approach in the business area we represent, will also continue to provide practical assistance to firms in developing the equality conversation with information sharing and our Forum events. We will also continue to work with both our membership and the legislative, executive and regulatory authorities on this basis.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors 

About PIMFA – the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association

  • PIMFA is the UK’s leading trade association for firms that provide investment management and financial advice to everyone from individuals and families to charities, pension funds, trusts and companies.
  • We represent both full and associate member firms.
    Full members provide a range of financial solutions including financial advice, portfolio management, as well as investment and execution services. They assist everyone from individuals and families, to charities and pension funds, all the way to trusts and companies.
    Associate members provide professional services to the PIMFA community.
  • PIMFA leads the debate on policy and regulatory recommendations to ensure that the UK remains a global centre of excellence in the wealth management, investment advice and financial planning arena.  Our mission is to create an optimal operating environment so that its member firms can focus on delivering the best service to clients, providing responsible stewardship for their long-term savings and investments.
  • PIMFA was created in June 2017 as the outcome of the merger between the Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) and Wealth Management Association (WMA) – read more.

2.     For more information about the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/519620/women_in_finance_charter.pdf

 

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