EBA consults on guidance on benchmarking of diversity practices

EBA has launched a consultation on Draft Guidelines on the benchmarking of diversity practices including diversity policies and gender pay gap under CRD and IFD.
The guidelines aim to improve transparency regarding the EBA’s work on diversity and gender equality and will help improve the quality of data collected by EBA on these topics since 2015 through information requests.
The guidelines will cover the collection of data on diversity policies, practices, and gender pay gaps at the level of the management body of institutions and investment firms.
The guidelines will include templates and instructions for the collection of diversity data, which will be foreseen every three years. The aim of the benchmarking is to ensure that a representative sample of institutions and investment firms is covered in each member state.
The EBA and competent authorities are required to benchmark diversity practices in institutions‘ management bodies under Article 91(11) of the CRD and Article 9(1) of the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID). The EBA and competent authorities are also mandated to collect information on the gender pay gap of members of the management body under Article 75(1) of the CRD and 34(1) of the IFD.
The new reporting format is expected to apply for the collection of data in 2025 for the financial year 2024. The guidelines are an important step towards greater transparency and accountability in the financial industry, and they will help to ensure that institutions and investment firms are held accountable for their diversity practices and gender pay gaps.