Diversified investments

Retail banks, with their large and largely female workforces, are among the most progressive employers when it comes to diversity. But, given the crisis in the sector, should we expect enthusiasm for promoting diversity to cool as attention is diverted elsewhere? Not according to members of the Inter-Retail Bank Diversity Network, a group set up last year to share best practice, which held its latest meeting at the height of the banking crisis
in September.

Some of the group’s members pulled out of the meeting at the last minute. They included Lloyds TSB – which was deep in talks about rescuing HBOS – and Alliance & Leicester, which at the time was looking to Abbey’s Spanish parent, Santander, to save it. Another participant, Bradford & Bingley, was subsequently also taken over by Santander.