Banks upbeat on gender inclusion despite cultural odds

KARACHI: Though banks have made slow progress towards gender equality, they are committed to adopt policies and processes to drive diversity and equal opportunity, especially when it comes to boost the number of women in leading roles in the financial industry of Pakistan, bankers said.

This pledge follows a recent central bank’s draft policy titled “Banking on Equality Policy: Reducing the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion”.

In interviews, some top executives and heads of human resources at various banks ranging from commercial to Islamic and microfinance, explained why women workers are left behind in the male-dominated banking sector and what steps their management is taking to increase the proportion of women in the workforce at banks and how the country’s lenders can meet global standards on gender diversity in boardrooms and in management positions.

Women have been active participants in Pakistan’s banking industry for decades; yet their participation has not been visible in the highest echelons of banks’ managements.

Gender diversity in banks across Pakistan is very low. Only 13 percent of the staff in banks is women, while only one percent of branchless banking agents are females.

“There is a need to work on improving institutional diversity through product diversification and development capabilities with offerings targeted to women in the workforce across SBP regulated entities including commercial and microfinance banks. This is bound to enhance women's participation in the workforce across the country,” said Mudassar Aqil, CEO at Telenor Microfinance Bank and Easypaisa.

The state of financial inclusion is not also very encouraging. According to statistics from the State Bank of Pakistan, only 18 percent of women have a formal bank account in Pakistan. This is significantly low compared to the percentage of women in the overall population or even in relation to other countries with similar economic conditions as ours.

“At Telenor Microfinance Bank, we believe in developing a diverse workforce to address the challenges of a dynamic marketplace. We have women commanding top roles in the bank because we believe that diversity drives innovation,” Aqil said.

“In order to foster progressive work environments where women have the mental and physical freedom to develop their careers, we provide ample opportunities for women to prove themselves and achieve the positions that they desire,” he added.

Sheeza Ahmed, a senior vice president at Habib Metropolitan Bank, said it was now mandatory for all publicly listed companies to have one female on their Board of Directors. “There is now much greater focus and progress on this front within banks.

The SBP has a female deputy governor who is providing much-needed focus to this initiative. She has served as a CEO of one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan, in the past,” Ahmed said.

She said bankers see advantages of having more women in senior management, and on the banks' boards as banks with a mixed workforce could perform better, compared to those that have less, therefore gender diversity could lead banks to make more profits.

“The greater the diversity within your team, the more diverse is your team’s pool of skills. Drawing on the power and richness of diversity, as enables all teams to drive better results - whether it’s a board of directors, senior management or any specific function,” Ahmed said.

Bankers said the diversity and inclusion in not someone else's responsibility.

Muhammad Umer, Head of Human Resources at Standard Chartered Pakistan, said, “The responsibility comes down to all of us and with collective responsibility we can create infrastructure to support inclusive practices such as a robust maternity leave policies, daycare provisions etc”.

Umer said banks needed to promote flexible and new ways of working and set the tone right from the top. “The recruitment shortlists should be gender diverse and if they are not, ask why?”

He suggested building awareness around diversity and inclusion principles, train staff on unconscious bias and the importance of creating an inclusive environment. “We can deliver banking products and services that continue to meet the changing needs of our diverse client base.” Umer added.

“Our Fair Pay Charter sets out the principles we use to guide our promotion, reward and performance decision-making,” Umer said.

“We have pledged to both increase gender representation across the bank and specifically at senior levels including our board. The Charter sets out the principles that we have committed to implement and uphold and account on the progress we make on gender inclusion and equal pay,” Umer added.

A woman banker said more females were being encouraged to join banking positions and their insights are being valued in product development and its analytics to a greater extent. “The system is now developing to incorporate more women and is more accepting to their skills and competencies,” she said.

Amina Hassan, a group head business at Khushhali Microfinance Bank Limited (KMBL) believes if women are provided with opportunities to work along with zero bias in recruitment and development processes, more women are prone to step out of their comfort zones and take up the challenge of representing greater leadership qualities.

She opined that training and gender inclusion in organisations were not enough for a considerable growth of women population; formal policies also need to be in place to support equal gender participation.

“In 2021, we plan on having 20 percent of the total workforce in KMBL’s head office to be women while by the end of next five years, these numbers should be across the entire branch network. With that being on table, KMBL will also be working towards providing equal work opportunity along with non-discriminatory wages and benefits,” Hassan added.