Driving Inclusion in Financial Services
When we were first developing our patent-pending framework for measuring inclusion, Aleria partnered with the Financial Women’s Association and their President’s Circle Sponsor firms to uncover specific opportunities to increase diversity and inclusion in Financial Services. Aleria has been actively measuring inclusion in the industry ever since.
FINRA’s Commitment to Inclusion
For those outside of the industry or unfamiliar, FINRA is a regulatory organization, authorized by Congress to protect America’s investors by making sure the broker-dealer industry operates fairly and honestly. As a public service organization, FINRA has long focused on responsible citizenship and looked to not only build an inclusive workplace itself, but to also increase inclusion across the industry and the communities it operates within.
As part of FINRA’s Diversity & Inclusion related efforts, they’ve hosted an annual Diversity Leadership Summit each year since 2013. Last week, they held their 10th summit and we were honored to participate.
Over three days, we heard from executives, researchers, academics, innovators, technologists, SEC Commissioners and more. It was a lot to take in. So for the final session of the summit, I joined Audria Pendergrass Lee, FINRA’s Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Chief Diversity Officer, to discuss the solutions, innovations and research findings explored throughout the Diversity Leadership Summit. More importantly, we wanted to provide the attendees with clear, actionable steps they could take to help advance DEI in finance.
For those that didn’t make the session, here are four themes that unfolded and clear opportunities to drive impact:
Increasing Access to Resources and Awareness of Opportunities
When it comes to the financial services industry, a lot of times what folks know is a reflection of what they’ve seen in movies. But, whether we’re talking about the wide range of roles throughout the industry or simply how to participate in the markets, it’s clear that we can do a better job at building awareness and educating the general population about the opportunities that exist.
SEC Commissioners Mark Uyeda and Jaime Lizárraga discussed the importance of intentionally engaging underserved markets, increasing access to resources and investing in financial literacy efforts.
During the tech innovation panel, Lule Demmissie, US CEO of eToro, discussed how technology in this space is also helping to broaden access and enable more folks to invest. The barriers to opening and leveraging a brokerage account have been reduced. We have lower account minimums and can now support fractional shares, as an example. And finally, with recent technology advances, individuals can invest from their phones and increasingly access information that can support more informed financial investment decisions.
With continued advancements in technology and industry-wide efforts to increase equitable access, we can bridge existing gaps and drive greater diversity and inclusion across the industry.
Engaging in Active Allyship
The first day of the event kicked off with Robert Cook, President & CEO of FINRA, interviewing Maeve DuVally, former corporate communications at Goldman Sachs. In this discussion, Maeve shared specific suggestions for LGBTQIA+ inclusion and allyship in the industry. The list of suggestions included:
- Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
- Folks in leadership taking public stances
- Mentor and sponsorship programs
- Calling out instances of bias when you witness them
- Lifting the voices of others in meetings
- Acknowledging mistakes and, when they happen, asking for feedback and ideas for the best way forward
Importantly, Maeve stressed that allyship is active and proactive.
SEC Commissioner Lizárraga later shared his thoughts on how stakeholders across the industry can support DEI efforts. He emphasized that regulators and industry leaders should embrace the opportunity to “be visible through our actions around initiatives, clear commitments and extensive engagement with the community.”
Working to Understand Personal Biases
At the individual level, Dr. Mahzarin Banaji encouraged us all to explore and work to better understand our personal biases. But simple awareness isn’t enough. We need to ensure we don’t codify our individual biases into systems and technology. Just the same, we need to build everyday processes with our biases in mind. Consider your recruiting practices, promotion processes, compensation protocols and more. How can these be adapted to increase diversity and inclusion?
Focusing on Inclusive Behaviors
In our work, we often reference a quote by the NeuroLeadership Institute: “Diversity without inclusion leads to a revolving door of talent.” During the panel on Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, Dr. Erika Kirgios made a similar statement. She pointed the fact that without inclusion, you cannot reap the benefits of diversity.
Increasing diversity in the financial services industry requires that we prioritize inclusion. And inclusion comes down to the day-to-day experiences of individuals.
As Dr. Banaji discussed our individual biases and how they show up, she talked about the relationship between our values and our behaviors. She said:
We all want our behaviors to be in line with our values. As humans, our values are great, and getting better. But our behaviors aren’t. We need to improve our behaviors.
No matter your role in the industry, you have the ability to influence the sense of inclusion for those around you. Are your behaviors in line with your values? Are you able to help make one person feel more included today?
Towards the end of the discussion, Audria asked me if I’m optimistic about the state of inclusion in the industry given our work and the data we have access to at Aleria. And I absolutely am.
Hear me discuss a few trends that give me hope:
If you made it this far in this post, you may also find the following resources, all of which were shared during FINRA’s Diversity Leadership Summit, interesting:
And if you’re interested in learning more about how Aleria measures inclusion and helps business leaders focus on initiatives that will lead to quantifiable impact, reach out.
