Bosses at one of world's biggest investment firms will need special approval to hire white men

Bosses at one of the world’s biggest investment firms will need to get special approval to hire white men as part of a new diversity drive. 

State Street Global Advisors aims to triple the number of black, Asian and other minority staff in senior roles by 2023 as part of a drive to improve diversity within its middle and senior management.

Failure to meet the target will result in a drop in executives’ bonuses, reports The Times.

State Street, which has 30 offices worldwide, including Canary Wharf in London, currently employs 39,400 people.  

Jess McNicholas, the bank’s head of inclusion, diversity and corporate citizenship in London, said: ‘This is now front and central for State Street — it’s on every senior executive’s scorecard.

Cyrus Taraporevala, President and CEO of State Street Global Advisors, speaks during the 2018 New York Times Dealbook

State Street, similar to other investment firms across the world, has traditionally been dominated by white men. The photograph above, from its website, shows a largely white male office celebrating its founding in 1978 

The financial services company is best known for commissioning the Fearless Girl statue, which was installed in front of the iconic Charging Bull on Wall Street in 2017 for International Women’s Day

‘All of our leaders have to demonstrate at their annual appraisals what they have done to improve female representation and the number of colleagues from ethnic-minority backgrounds.’

Recruiters must now create a panel of four or five people that includes a woman and someone of an ethnic-minority background when hiring middle management staff – employees at vice-president and above.

Ms McNicholas added that State Street will still hire white men, but recruiters will now need to show that women and ethnic minority candidates have been interviewed by the diverse panels.  

The new drive will also see the investment firm increase spending with diverse suppliers over the next three years..

It has pledged to ‘hold ourselves accountable for strengthening black and Latinx owned businesses’.  

State Street commissioned the Fearless Girl statue, which was installed in front of the iconic Charging Bull on Wall Street in 2017 for International Women’s Day.

The statue was later moved outside the New York Stock Exchange building after complaints from the Bull’s sculptor.

The financial giant announced earlier this year it will close its two Manhattan officers as its employees ‘adapt quickly’ to working from home.      

State Street’s profits have declined as pandemic-induced low-interest rates have cut into its gains.

The firm has previously announced plans to cut 1,200 jobs, equivalent to three per cent of its workforce.

The headquarters of State Street Corporation at Canary Wharf in the financial heart of London

It follows the BBC sparking a discrimination row earlier this year after only allowing people from ethnic minorities to apply for a trainee position.  

The broadcaster advertised a one-year, £17,810 trainee production management assistant role with its Science Unit in Glasgow, but the position was ‘only open to black, Asian and ethnically diverse candidates’.

Positive discrimination is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010, but ‘positive action’ is allowed for trainee and internship roles in areas where there is under-representation.

The woman in charge of diversity at NHS England also earned more than its chief executive and half as much more than the Prime Minister, The Mail on Sunday revealed September.

According to accounts for 2019-20, Prerana Issar joined NHS England as chief people officer in April 2019 on an annual salary of between £230,000 and £235,000 – equivalent to the salaries of nine newly qualified nurses or the cost of 20 hip replacement operations.

The salary is far higher than that of Boris Johnson – who is paid £157,332 – and £35,000 more than that earned by her now former boss Lord Stevens, who opted to take a 10 per cent pay cut in each of his seven years in charge of NHS England.   

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