Lloyds nears target for women in senior jobs

London - Taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group said it was on course to have 40 percent of senior roles at the bank filled by women in the next five years as it looks to remove “roadblocks” to female career progression.

Lloyds presently has 29 percent of senior posts filled by women - including three independent directors on the board - after a drive to improve representation. The advance follows recent progress on the issue by companies across the FTSE 100, which is now just 17 women short of meeting Lord Davies' target of 25 percent of all blue-chip directors being female by the end of this year. Representation has almost doubled since 2011 with 263 female directors in FTSE 100 companies so far - a 23.5 percent share.

Lloyds' diversity director Fiona Cannon said the bank had put in place specific “comply or explain” policies for shortlists of candidates for senior jobs not including women, as well as schemes to develop leadership potential among middle management-level women.

Cannon said the bank had made good progress but had more work to do. She added: “We need to identify where many of these roadblocks are, and importantly, how we can try to break them down.

“The group will need to overcome a number of challenges before it becomes a fully inclusive workplace for women.”

The Independent