Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I)

The ambition gap is growing

Women are finding that their employers are less committed to their success at a time when their support is most needed

Many financial professionals agree that home appraisals can be unreliable and that Black homeowners and other minorities are often put at a significant disadvantage.

Why US mortgage lenders are ignoring Trump’s rollback on home appraisal reviews

The US president has scrapped some of the guidelines, part of his team’s vow to stamp out what it sees as initiatives that support diversity, equity and inclusion

Median annual giving by Asia’s largest philanthropies is less than half that of their North American peers.
ESG INSIGHTS

Issue 152: Blended finance’s Asean philanthropies problem; sticking with DEI

This week in ESG: Convergence Asia-Pacific head addresses misaligned objectives; the need to do DEI right

Nike, JPMorgan, Constellation Brands and Akamai Technologies have different explanations for why their sustainability reports haven’t been published this year.

US companies delay impact reports with DEI, ESG under attack

IT WAS just over a year ago when Nike’s then CEO, John Donahoe, trumpeted a flashy 90-second video, hyping a report about the company’s efforts to improve diversity and equality.

Some high-profile companies, including Disney, have ended or scaled back their DEI programmes in response to cost and political pressures.
BOARDROOM MATTERS

The good, the bad and the ugly of DEI

Research into the effects of gender diversity on board governance and company performance has proven inconclusive

Having leadership teams comprising members spanning different generations likely better prepares companies to handle the myriad of challenges which confront businesses today. 
HOCK LOCK SIEW

Companies should look to include 30- and 80-year-olds in their top executive teams

Consider building more age-diverse corporate leadership teams to better serve stakeholders

FCC chair Brendan Carr in February said that he was opening a probe of Verizon for its promotion of DEI programmes and added it could be a factor in the Frontier deal.

Verizon deal to acquire Frontier approved after DEI changes

[WASHINGTON] The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday (May 16) approved Verizon Communications’s US$20 billion deal to acquire fibre-optic Internet providers Frontier Communications af...

Both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq now demand that a majority of directors are independent, and directors undergo professional training in business schools.

DEI may not survive. But shareholder activism will

The death of Robert Monks, the godfather of shareholder activism, reminds us how much it has reinvigorated the corporate world

Ben and Jerry's has accused its parent company, Unilever, of dismissing its CEO for supporting the ice cream maker's political activism.
THINKING ALOUD

The unreliable and fickle flavours of corporate values 

Don’t expect firms to display moral backbone – they were never meant to have one

HSBC’s new corporate and institutional banking division, which houses the investment bank and the trading business, is a key money-spinner.

HSBC’s revamp of key Asia division costs women senior roles

Out of at least 15 new banking head roles named across Asia-Pacific, only two are going to women