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Waters, Brown and Green Statement on GAO Report on
Management Representation of Minorities and Women and
Diversity Practices in the Financial Services Industry
Last week,
following the public release of a Government Accountability
Office (GAO)
report
entitled “Financial Services Industry: Trends in Management
Representation of Minorities and Women and Diversity
Practices, 2007-2015,” Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA),
Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services,
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ranking Member of the
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and
Congressman Al Green (D-TX), Ranking Member of the
House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations, issued the following comments:
“It is
important that we improve the racial, ethnic and gender
diversity in the financial services industry workforce,”
said Ranking Member Waters. “In this report, the GAO
found only a modest improvement in the overall
representation of minorities in management positions in the
financial services industry from 2007 through 2015, and the
report very troublingly shows that representation of African
Americans actually decreased at various management levels,
despite the increasingly diverse racial and ethnic
demographic makeup of the American population. This is
unacceptable. Diverse representation in the management of
these institutions is essential in order to ensure that all
consumers have fair access to credit, capital and banking
and financial services.” |
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Congressman Al Green (D-TX) |
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“The GAO
report is troubling,” said Ranking Member Brown.
“Improving diversity in these positions, particularly senior
level positions, is critical to ensure all communities are
well-served. American prosperity succeeds when everyone has
access to financial services tools and are able to fully
participate in the economy.”
“Although I
am heartened to see that overall representation of women and
minorities in the financial services industry has increased,
I am deeply concerned that representation of
African-Americans at various management levels has
decreased,” said Ranking Member Green. “To continue
to meet the challenge of improving workforce diversity, I
strongly support making firm-level diversity data publicly
available. As a major source of U.S. economic growth, the
management should indeed reflect the consumers they serve. ”
The GAO
report found that:
• From 2007
through 2015, representation of African-Americans at various
management levels decreased while representation of other
minorities increased. The proportion of African-American in
management positions decreased from 6.5 percent to 6.3
percent. Representation of minorities at the overall
management level increased by 3.7 percentage points and
representation of minorities among senior-level managers
increased by 1.7 percentage points during this period.
• Overall
representation of women was generally unchanged from 2007
through 2015. Representation of women among first- and
mid-level managers remained around 48 percent and
senior-level managers remained about 29 percent during this
period.
The GAO
report, which is an update to an April 2013
report,
was requested by Ranking Member Waters, Ranking Member
Brown, and Ranking Member Green.
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