Royal Bank of Canada Signs up to HM Treasury "Women in Finance Charter"

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RBC

22 Mar, 2017, 14:00 GMT

LONDON, March 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

RBC is focused on achieving an inclusive workplace where all employees have equal opportunity to reach their full potential, and recognises that diversity and inclusion is not just a core value, it is also a business priority

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), across its businesses in the British Isles, is pleased to confirm its participation in the Women in Finance Charter. By signing the Charter, RBC is underscoring its commitment to gender equality and recruiting, retaining and advancing a diverse employee base.

The Women in Finance Charter supports the progression of women to senior roles and recognizes the importance of gender equality across financial services organisations in the UK. The Charter reflects the UK government's aspiration to see gender balance at all levels across the financial services industry.

Harry Samuel, Chairman of RBC's European Executive Committee and the senior leader designated under the Women in Finance Charter as responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion, commented: "Diversity and inclusion for innovation and growth is one of RBC's core values, and this sits at the heart of our culture and our approach to client service. Ensuring an inclusive workplace is vital to the continued success of our business, and the RBC leadership team is fully committed to supporting an environment where all our employees have the opportunity to thrive in their careers, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability or age."

For more information on RBC's commitment to diversity and inclusion and the Women in Finance Charter, visit our webpage.

Notes to editors: 

RBC Employee Resource Groups
RBC has four active employee resource groups in the UK with a combined total of more than 850 employee members. The networks are open to all employees to promote inclusion.

  • Pride - a support and networking group for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender employees
  • RWomen - supporting women to succeed in banking and finance
  • i-CARE - a networking group to support parents and working carers
  • Multicultural Employee Alliance - providing and recognizing multicultural interests of employees and clients

2016 External Recognition
Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 

  • RBC ranked 157th out of 415 organisations. Significantly, we ranked 7th out of the top 16 Investment and Asset Management banks included in the index.

Business in the Community Gender Benchmarking Survey 

  • RBC was branded a Silver award and rated 7 per cent ahead of the average score.

Working Families 

  • RBC was rated a Top 30 Employer in the Working Families 2016 Benchmark Report.

External partnerships 

  • Stonewall
  • Business in the Community
  • Working Families
  • Business Disability Forum
  • City Parents
  • Women's Executive Network
  • Bloomberg (Gender Equality Index)
  • Catalyst

About Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Canada is Canada's largest bank, and one of the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor services and capital markets products and services on a global basis. We have over 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 35 other countries. For more information, please visit http://www.rbc.com.

RBC helps communities prosper, supporting a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. For more information please see: http://www.rbc.com/community-sustainability.

Adam Lister, +44-(0)20-7653-4978, adam.lister@rbc.com;  Lauren Wooder, +44-(0)-207-029-7845, lauren.wooder@rbc.com