Citi has just just appointed a new raft of managing directors (MDs) in its investment bank EMEA. An unusually high proportion are women.
Citi just promoted 37 people in its institutional clients group to managing director in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 14 of them were women – a 38% share across sales and trading and IBD.
When Goldman Sachs appointed its new EMEA managing directors last month, just 28% were women. If you’re a woman who wants to rise to the top in an investment bank, Citi’s London office therefore looks like the place to be.
Globally, however, Citi promoted a smaller proportion of women than Goldman this year – 24% compared to Goldman’s 25%.
What makes Citi’s EMEA investment bank so female friendly? The US bank declined to comment.
Both Goldman and Citi run programs to help women into senior roles. Citi has, ‘Women Leading Citi’ and a ‘Women Leadership Development’, programs to help women achieve their potential. Goldman has a ‘Women’s Career Strategies Initiative.’
It might help that Citi promotes far fewer people overall than Goldman Sachs. Goldman’s 2015 MD class comprised 425 people across sales and trading, IBD, support roles and asset management, of whom 110 were in its EMEA offices. With women historically dropping out of finance careers before they even reach middle management level, maybe it was simply too hard for Goldman to make the numbers?
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