Last year, more men than women were appointed to the boards of Europe’s leading financial service firms.
Last year, more men than women were appointed to the boards of major financial services firms in Europe, despite nearly a third of companies risking non-compliance with the EU’s forthcoming mandatory quotas for women on corporate boards.
According to a survey from the consultancy firm EY published on Monday, 44% of non-executive appointments in 2023 were women, a decrease from 51% the previous year.
The European Financial Services Boardroom Monitor reveals that 31% of listed financial services firms still fall short of the EU’s upcoming gender diversity targets.
By June 2026, the EU will begin enforcing a legally binding 40% quota for women on corporate boards, a move European lawmakers have hailed as a landmark deal for gender equality. Omar Ali, managing partner for EMEIA financial services at EY, cautioned against reversing the “excellent progress” of recent years. “Boardroom diversity has been proven time and again to drive outperformance,” he said in a statement.
The survey indicates that C-suite experience—such as roles of chief executive officer or chief financial officer—was the top criterion for recruiters in 2023. EY’s data, covering the EU, the UK, Norway, and Switzerland, suggests female directors are significantly less likely than their male counterparts to have this experience or to have held senior board positions.
Ali acknowledged that the demand for C-suite experience is “understandable and expected” but emphasized that it “should not come at the cost of better balancing gender representation across Europe’s financial boardrooms.”
“Recruitment of new board directors should bring new skills and expertise into the boardroom,” Ali added. “The 40% level of female representation at board level is a minimum to build from, not a target to aim for.”
In 2022, women occupied 32.2% of boardroom positions across the EU, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality. The figure varied widely across member states: Italy, the Netherlands, and Denmark met the threshold in 2022, while France, which already has a 40% women-on-boards quota, surpassed it. Conversely, in Hungary, Estonia, and Cyprus, women accounted for only one in ten board members.
