The government’s commitment to gender equality has been endorsed by one of the most significant organisations in the UK financial sector. Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs)– the company behind Direct Debit in the UK – has appointed its own Anne Pieckielon to take forward recommendations in the Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter.
Bacs is the first payments scheme to sign up to the charter, which is the result of Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s review into women in senior managerial positions in financial services. The Charter reflects the government’s determination to see gender balance at all levels across the sector.
Anne has risen through the ranks in a male dominated financial sector, and is Bacs’ Director of Product and Strategy and a key member of the company’s leadership team. She said: “The Women in Finance Charter is setting the standard for our industry, and we are pleased to be the first payments scheme signing up to this – we encourage others to follow our lead. A balanced workforce is good for business; it is good for customers, for profitability, and for workplace culture and, at Bacs, we’re proud that women make up almost half of our team.
“That said, we are working to further improve our own gender balance by making sure we have the policies and procedures in place to support gender equality, and we would hope the rest of our sector will follow suit.”
Bacs has, through its involvement in the Women in Finance Charter, committed itself to four binding pledges:
- To have one member of its senior executive team responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion
- To set internal targets for gender diversity in senior management
- To publish its progress about these targets
- To link senior executives renumeration to the delivery of these internal targets
Bacs currently has 25 per cent female representation in its executive team, 43 per cent at line manager level and 47 per cent female representation across the company.