Perhaps it is no surprise that when Euromoney sits down with Bank of America to discuss the bank’s pitch for this category there are five people in the meeting – and they are all women. This is a bank that has led from the front across all aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR), including diversity and inclusion (D&I).
In 2023, 33% of the global management team are women and 50% are from diverse backgrounds. Overall, 50% of the total workforce of the bank are women.
“The EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] region is one of the leaders in the integration between D&I and CSR” says Andrea Sullivan, head of international environment, social and governance at Bank of America. “These groups have worked very hard to make sure that the knitting together is very thoughtful.”
Given that BofA does not have a retail bank in western Europe, the numbers for D&I are impressive. The bank has prioritized attracting and developing diverse talent through its campus recruitment programmes and community partnerships with more than 10 organizations including UpReach, SEO London, MyGwork, 10,000 Black interns, 93% Club, Black Young Professionals and Females in Finance.
UpReach helps disadvantaged students from across the UK by delivering highly personalized programmes of support. Over 2,000 UpReach associates benefit from the programme each year, with the number of hires across BofA itself growing each year.
The bank has a particular focus on women and economic activity in western Europe and has partnered with the Irish government and Rethink Ireland to establish the Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland Fund). The €2.2 million four-year fund was established in 2019 and is the first of its kind in Ireland to provide training, upskilling, education and other services to disadvantaged women.
To date, a total of 2,547 women have participated in the programme with over 1,000 finding sustainable employment and 465 women accessed accredited training.
In France, its longstanding partnership with Force Femmes helps women over 45 years of age to find work or start their own business by providing advice and career coaching.
The focus on female empowerment starts at home.
“Driving leader accountability on gender continues to be a focus,” explains Katy Ingle, head of talent and learning for EMEA at BofA. “We have women in 30% of leadership positions across Asia Pacific, Latin America and western Europe. In other areas of diversity, we have more work to do and must navigate a very complex legal landscape.”
The bank is highly focused on the regional impact of its CSR work.
Bank of America is at the forefront of the agenda, embedding sustainability in every dialogue across the bank – spanning across corporates and institutions
Alexandra Basirov
“A lot of the work we do is in creating jobs and skilling,” adds Sullivan. “This is core to where companies have to go to be successful.”
It extends across arts and education to environmental impact.
“Bank of America is at the forefront of the agenda, embedding sustainability in every dialogue across the bank – spanning across corporates and institutions,” explains Alexandra Basirov, managing director and head of EMEA environmental, social and governance advisory and financing solutions, who joined from BNP Paribas in August last year.
BofA pledged £1.2 million to the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University in May 2022, to support greenhouse gas and sustainable finance research. This partnership is part of a broader environmental business initiative at the bank, supporting three years of cutting-edge research into carbon capture and greenhouse gas removals, and the integration of nature-based metrics into sustainable finance frameworks.
“We have a commitment to be focused on this work. We have a duty to stakeholders,” says Sullivan. “We work as one bank in concert with the strategy at the top of the house.”
