Published: October 20, 2020
The industry offers good working conditions for employees, but struggles with cultural diversity, according to the 2020 D&I Index.
In late September, Refinitiv announced the launch of its 2020 Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Index, which ranks the Top 100 most diverse and inclusive organisations globally. The index is designed to provide a transparent and objective measure of how well companies are performing.
The leading industry on this year’s index is banking, investment services and insurance, with 18 firms making the top 100. These include three EMEA banks: France’s Societe Generale, Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo and South Africa’s Nedbank with rankings of 19, 76 and 86 respectively. The American investment management company BlackRock occupies the top slot.
The ratings are based on Refinitiv’s (ESG) data set, which is gathered from publicly available information sources. Starting out with close to 10,000 publicly listed companies, Refinitiv assigned scores on 24 separate metrics across four key pillars, which are people development, diversity, controversy, inclusion. Companies with a sufficient level of disclosure were given an overall D&I rating.
Elena Philipova, head of ESG Proposition at Refinitiv, tells EMEA Finance the index’s purpose is twofold. First, companies that track their D&I will tend to achieve a better score over time than those that don’t. Second, the index provides a good benchmark for companies and investors, at a time when ESG-related issues are becoming more important than ever.