‘Diversity makes good business sense’ says Bank of England’s Victoria Saporta
The Bank of England’s executive director of prudential policy Victoria Saporta has spoken out about her experience in central banking and regulation, and why diversity makes “good business sense“.
“When I entered the Bank, for most of the next decade there were no women leaders in the executive management structure of the economics departments,” Saporta wrote in a column for Financial News.
In a profession dominated by men, Saporta recalled only seeing a handful of women in regulation and central services in her 27 years at the bank.
Having chosen to apply for a job in regulation due to one of the heads of department being a woman, Saporta said that what truly helped her in her career at the Bank were those who valued equality and inclusion.
“There were people around that had power (all white men) that gave me opportunities and helped me navigate the organisation,” she added.
The executive director named a number of reasons for why diversity and inclusion helps the Bank’s business.
“First, diversity helps in recruiting and retaining the best talent…How would we do this well if we recruited from smaller, non-diverse pools only?”
Saporta also spoke of how limited diversity can lead to less challenging of leaders and fewer alternative solutions: “There was too much of this in banks that failed during the global financial crisis and I will never forget this.
“This is the reason the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) issued a consultation on inclusion and diversity to act against groupthink and promote better governance and better quality decisions,” she added.
The column follows yesterday’s Treasury committee, during which Financier Baroness Helena Morrissey told parliamentarians there were “big pockets of no improvement whatsoever” when it came to gender parity in the Square Mile.
Fiona Mackenzie, CEO of The Other Half, added that remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic had led to unexpected progress on the issues faced by women in the City.