Racial Equity in Financial Services

​The IPA is pleased to announce that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company will be featured presenters at this year’s Innovative Payments Conference in April.  During their presentation, representatives from the Kellogg Foundation and McKinsey will lead an in depth discussion focused on a recent article the two organizations co-authored entitled, “Racial Equity in Financial Services,” which was published in September 2020.  
 
In brief, the report makes the case that due to America’s evolving demographics, companies with “a diverse executive team, board, or both” directly  “correlates with higher profitability” and overall better business outcomes. The research examines the experiences of people of color in the financial services sector and explores the critical issues of representation, promotion, and directive versus supportive roles for people of color in the financial services sector. The report concludes with a call to action for leaders to advance racial equity to drive better business performance
 
Accordingly, a part of their conference session will feature a new program led by the Kellogg Foundation. The program, called Expanding Equity, is for companies that want to take strategic, measurable and clear steps toward advancing racial equity in their organizations. The foundation is currently recruiting companies for a Financial Services cohort and invites IPA members who are interested to participate. In brief, the program is designed for companies at any stage of their diversity, equity and inclusion work and offered at no cost to participating companies. 
 
The Expanding Equity program offers dozens of specific equity initiatives for financial services companies; a confidential, company-specific analysis on your starting point, referenced against broader industry performance; and a series of workshops that offer the tools, knowledge and human-centered approaches for cultivating workplaces that attract, develop, retain and promote diverse talent. You can learn more at www.expandingequity.com. 
 
The first cohort, convened over the last 9 months, focused on financial services companies and was extremely successful. Participants agreed that the program helped them develop concrete steps to take to build a more racially equitable workplace. Accordingly, all cohort participants have changed the way in which they recruit diverse talent, and have installed meaningful initiatives to improve the experiences of employees of color throughout their journey in the companies.  
 
As Expanding Equity recruits its second cohort of financial services businesses, I encourage you to consider participating.  Please email ExpandingEquity@wkkf.org, or Brian Tate if you are interested in learning more.