As part of a diversity drive, bosses at the largest investment firm in the world will have to obtain special approval before hiring white men.
State Street Global Advisors plans to increase the proportion of minority employees in senior positions by doubling their number by 2023, as part of its drive to diversify its middle and top management.
The Times reports that executives will lose their bonuses if they fail to achieve the target.
State Street has thirty offices around the world, with Canary Wharf located in London. The current workforce is 39,400.
Jess McNicholas, the bank’s head of inclusion, diversity and corporate citizenship in London, said: ‘This is now front and central for State Street — it’s on every senior executive’s scorecard.
State Street is similar to many other international investment companies. It has always been dominated over white men. Its website shows the above photograph of a predominantly white office that was celebrating the company’s 1978 founding.
Financial services giant is well-known because it commissioned the Fearless Girl Statue, which was mounted in front of Charging Bull Wall Street in 2017. This installation commemorates International Women’s Day.
“All leaders of the organization must show at their annual appraisals that they made improvements in female representation, and how many of their colleagues are from ethnic minorities backgrounds.
When hiring middle managers – such as employees in the vice-president or above – recruiters will need to create a group of at least four of our five members.
Ms McNicholas stated that State Street would still hire white men but that recruiters must now show diversity panels that they have interviewed women and candidates from ethnic minorities.
This new initiative will see an increase in spending by the firm with different suppliers over the course of the next three-years.
It promised to “hold ourselves accountable” for strengthening Latinx-owned companies.
State Street ordered the Fearless Girl statue. It was installed at Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull in 2017, in honor of International Women’s Day.
After complaints by the Bull’s sculpturer, the statue was moved to the New York Stock Exchange.
Financial giant, Citigroup announced this year that it would close Manhattan’s two Manhattan offices to help its workers ‘adapt quickly to work from home’.
State Street has seen its profits decline as low interest rates caused by the pandemic have reduced its gains.
The company has already announced that it will cut 1,200 jobs. That’s equivalent to three percent of its current workforce.