On International Women's Day, the New Zealand Herald celebrates some of New Zealand's powerful and influential women in business.
Video / NZ Herald
Supporting New Zealanders’ aspirations to buy a house, finance a business and meet their retirement goals, the financial services ecosystem plays a significant role in our economy and society.
It’s a sector that employs almost 100,000 people in well-paying jobs, taking on deposits and savings, and lending and investing thesefunds on behalf of the public and institutions. It also has an important role to play in decarbonising our economy, facilitating investment flows to support reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
ASB CEO Vittoria Shortt.
Given this scale and reach, the finance sector significantly contributes to New Zealand Inc. However, doing more to improve the diversity of its workforce could enhance that contribution even further.
The sector has made significant improvements in diversity.
Women hold CEO positions at three of our major banks, several large insurance companies and the Financial Markets Authority. However, while 57 per cent of the financial services workforce is female, only a third of senior roles are held by women.
Research carried out by the Herald in the lead-up to International Women’s Day in 2021 found women comprised 20-25 per cent of the total partnership in the top four accounting firms and 29-33 per cent in major law firms. Statistics published by the NZX in July 2022 showed that in the first half of 2022, women comprised 29 per cent of all directors and 26 per cent of all senior executives.
And while the 18 per cent of Māori and Pacific people working in the sector is not a lot lower than their 20 per cent share of the overall workforce, they are significantly under-represented in management and professional ranks. Over the entire New Zealand workforce, some 36 per cent of Māori and Pacific people are employed in managerial or professional roles, compared with 47 per cent across the entire workforce.
This question was posed to outgoing Spark chairman Mark Verbiest in 2017 for an article published by Global Women, to which he responded:
“I start with the premise you should want the best people.
Financial Markets Authority CEO Samantha Barrass.
“To me, it is a no-brainer that unless you consider the totality of talent available within and outside an organisation, you are running a significant risk that you are unlikely to get the best people. Gender diversity — and indeed broader diversity — is also critical, particularly if you sell services to a wide range of New Zealanders.
“Finally, in my experience, better decisions result from diverse views being expressed and worked through. The end result: better financial outcomes, better engagement with staff and customers and a more sustainable business.
“And it is the right thing to do!”
How can we shift the dial?
With more than 2000 members nationwide, Infinz is the leading individual membership organisation for those in the wider financial services ecosystem and has a role to play in advancing and supporting the diversity of the sector’s workforce.
Young Women in Finance (YWF) was established as a networking mechanism for young women in finance-related roles to engage and connect with senior leaders.
In 2018, Infinz formed a partnership with this then-Auckland-based group, which launched in Wellington the following year. YWF’s most recent International Women’s Day events featured presentations by managing director and co-head of investment banking at Jarden NZ Silvana Schenone, Infinz fellow and Infratil chairwoman Alison Gerry and YWF Auckland chairwoman Cindy Yin, a deals advisery manager with PwC who is an observer on the Infinz board. The YWF program is sponsored by the New Zealand Financial Markets Association.
Westpac CEO Catherine McGrath.
Infinz’s Emerging Leaders Group is focused on helping subject-matter experts move into leadership roles. Chaired by Mei Zi Ho, a research analyst at Nikko Asset Management - who is a Next Director on the Infinz board - this group is also the target for our Next Director courses, which help those aspiring to governance roles better understand the requirements of senior leadership.
These efforts are making a difference.
Over the past five years, we have doubled our number of female members to more than 750, with women now comprising 36 per cent of our total membership and 43 per cent of those members aged under 35.
We are also keen to get more young Māori and Pacific people interested in financial services careers. To this end, each year we support 10 students through the TupuToa programme, which is committed to growing Māori and Pacific leaders. And we have recently entered into a partnership with the First Foundation, committing to supporting two students of Māori or Pasifika heritage through university as they study for commerce degrees.
As an organisation, we’re proud of these initiatives and the progress being made to foster and support greater diversity in the financial services ecosystem.
But there is so much more work to do if we want to fully realise the potential true diversity can deliver for the health and vibrancy of our economy and society.
