ALEXANDRIA, Va. NCUA and the other financial regulators are drafting standards to evaluate workforce diversity at credit unions and banks in an effort to gauge institutions’ efforts to hire women and minorities.
The agencies plan to develop a uniform standard to assess each institution’s diversity while taking into consideration differences such as size, capability, and history, according to a report issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion this week.
The Dodd-Frank Act mandates the creation of an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion in each regulator and requires the offices to develop standards for encouraging diversity, promoting women- and minority-owned contractors and assessing regulated institutions on their diversity efforts.
The standards are supposed to be set avoiding “undue burden” on regulated companies, and using data that is already readily available.
Besides NCUA, the agencies that are drawing up diversity standards are the FDIC, Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The draft standards will be issued later this year and be followed by a public comment period.
