Women Directors: One in 8, But U.S. Banks Lead
Big U.S. banking companies have a higher percentage of women directors than their foreign counterparts do, and most of the U.S. contingent have at least one.
So says a study, released Friday by Corporate Women Directors International, of the 100 largest U.S. banking companies and the 50 largest global banking companies, including six from the U.S. group.
Ninety percent of the U.S. companies but only 70% of the global top 50 have at least one woman director, the New York group found.
“Though the trend is positive, the changes are not happening fast enough,” said Reatha Clark King, a director at Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco who first joined a predecessor’s board in 1978. Five of Wells’ 15 directors are women.
Corporate Women Directors International, which promotes participation of women on corporate boards, says the study is the first to examine the banking sector specifically.
A 2003 survey of Fortune 500 companies found that 13.6% of their directors were women. Eighty-nine percent of the companies had at least one woman director, according to the study, which the Catalyst research and advisory group conducted.
On June 30, 12.2% of the directors of big U.S. banking companies — one in eight — were women, according to the new study, which was made available to American Banker last Wednesday. The figure was 10.3% for the global top 50; it was 9.4% for those not based in this country.
“It’s a joke,” said Marion Sandler at Golden West Financial Corp. of Oakland, Calif. “It tells you it is something that is not important, apparently, to managements.”
Ms. Sandler and her husband, Herbert, are the co-chief executives at Golden West, the nation’s second-largest thrift company. With five women and four men as directors, it is one of just two major U.S. corporations with women a board majority.
The Sandlers said Thursday that since starting the company more than 40 years ago they have made a point of hiring and promoting women.
Does having women on a board make a difference in business? The Sandlers say no.
“It’s the quality of the operation, it’s the culture of the operation that is affected” by having a diverse board, Ms. Sandler said. “But I’d be hard pressed to give you any change that affects the bottom line.”
But Ms. King said board diversity does affect business.
If customers “don’t see themselves amongst the people connected with you — the employees, the board members — they are going to say, ‘Well, they are not interested in my business,’ ” she said. “You make a statement, a definite statement, to potential customers when they can see people like themselves on your board, in your employee ranks, in your executive ranks.”
Among the boards of big U.S. banks, Bank of Hawaii Corp.’s has the third-highest percentage of women.
Allan R. Landon, its chairman and the Honolulu company’s chief executive, pointed out that the last gubernatorial race in Hawaii was between two women.
It is not just customers and other outsiders who consider who is on the board, he said Thursday.
“We think about it inside too,” Mr. Landon said. “More of our employees are women than men, and I think everybody feels more comfortable when there’s a good sense of balance in the governance process,” he said.
“Our board reflects that, and our board members are leaders, and we want our employees to aspire to that.”
One U.S. bank with no women board members is Merrill Lynch Bank USA, a Utah subsidiary of the New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Another is BNP Paribas’ U.S. banking business, BancWest Corp., which lost its one woman director last spring.
BancWest said its Bank of the West has a female director. A spokeswoman for Merrill said the parent company has three.
Webster Financial Corp. of Waterbury, Conn., also has no women on its board. “We are actively recruiting new directors and hope to increase the ranks of women on our board,” said its general counsel, Harriet Munrett, an executive vice president.
First Banks Inc. of Clayton, Mo., has no women on its eight-member board. A spokesman noted that half its directors are bank officers, and that its 12-member management committee includes three women.
BancorpSouth Inc. of Tupelo, Miss., is also on the all-male-board list. A spokesman said the company has a nominating committee “that takes into consideration constituencies and demographics as well as diversity.”
Also on the list were Commerce Bancorp of Cherry Hill, N.J.; Astoria Financial Corp. of Lake Success, N.Y.; New York Private Bank and Trust Co.; and Compass Bancshares Inc. of Birmingham, Ala.
A Compass spokesman declined to discuss the matter. Commerce, Astoria, and New York Private did not respond to inquiries.
Ms. King and the Sandlers said board diversity requires a commitment from a chief executive officer.
“A lot of boards have a woman because they are supposed to have a woman,” Mr. Sandler said. “They go after somebody with a big name — Wow! — because that’s the game. For us it’s not a game; it’s a belief system.”
