Waters and Beatty Release Committee Staff Report Highlighting Lack of Diversity at Nation's Large Banks

Statement

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Committee on Financial Services, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Chair of the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, released a multimedia Majority staff report entitled, "Diversity and Inclusion: Holding America' Large Banks Accountable."

This report is part of a longstanding effort to hold financial institutions accountable and provide the American public with a complete picture of how large banks are meeting their commitments to diversity and inclusion.

Following the March and April full Committee hearings to hold megabanks accountable, Chairwoman Waters and Subcommittee Chair Beatty, sent requests to 44 financial institutions to obtain their diversity and inclusion data and policies.

The data requests were designed to inform Congress of the diversity levels, policies and practices of the country's biggest banks.

Committee Staff Findings:
The Committee staff report found that:
Banks' boards of directors are not diverse;
Banks' senior employees are not diverse; and,
Banks have limited spending and investments with diverse firms.

The Committee staff report also found that the most prevalent challenges reported were:
The competition for diverse talent;
The absence of a consistent definition of diversity and inclusion; and,
Data collection and self-identification problems.

The Committee staff report recommended that Congress consider the following legislative
actions to improve diversity and inclusion at America's largest banks:
Require that banks share diversity and inclusion data with their regulators and the public;
Require banks to track and make efforts to increase their spending with diverse firms; and,
Require banks to publicly disclose the diversity of their boards.

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