Association of British Insurers To Set New Guidelines for Boardroom Diversity - Building Gender Balanced Business

As a number of European countries are taking significant measures to bring gender equality to company boards, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has announced that it will be putting forth new guidelines to encourage companies to select more women for board seats.

• Increasingly companies are seeking directors with more varied experience to avoid the sort of groupthink that led to the banking crisis
• There is growing concern that too many corporate boards are “male, pale and stale”

The ABI’s research into the shortcomings of common board practice (to be published in September) is expected to:

• give companies and investors a helpful benchmark
• help them to “push forward best practice and raise market standards”

The Financial Reporting Council, which created the UK code on corporate governance, is consulting on the Lord Davies recommendation that the code should force listed companies to make their policies on gender diversity in the boardroom public.

Read the full Financial Times report here