Women in banking

To err is human, to get fired for it … female

"When Harry Fired Sally": One of the latest studies of gender differences in financial services finds female advisers accused of wrongdoing are 20% more likely to lose their jobs than male advisers accused of wrongdoing. The women also are 30% less likely to be rehired than the men within a year following the incident, even though the women are less likely than the men to commit another offense, according to the study's findings. The infractions cover a wide range, including misrepresenting or omitting key facts and committing fraud. But even controlling for factors like the severity of the offense — as well as qualifications and experience level — women fared worse than men. The study identified Wells Fargo Advisors as the biggest offender, saying its female advisers were 25% more likely to experience a "job separation" after misconduct than their male counterparts. That figure is about 20% for Morgan Stanley's female advisers and close to 15% for those from Bank of America Investment Services and JPMorgan Securities. The report is titled "When Harry Fired Sally." You can access it here.

Omission admission: A senior official at the Bank of England, Charlotte Hogg, has resigned following a "serious error of judgment" in which she failed to disclose a conflict of interest — that her brother held a senior position at Barclays during her time at the central bank. Her departure will leave the BOE with a significant shortage of women at the top. It now has no female deputy governors (as chief operating officer and deputy governor for markets and banking, Hogg briefly occupied two of five positions at the deputy governor level). And after the departure of Kristen Forbes from the BOE's Monetary Policy Committee this coming June, there will be just one woman across its three main policymaking committees.

Bigger than Uber?: People talk a lot about an "Uber moment" of disruption, but those have been few in the banking industry, according to Marie Floyd, senior vice president of digital customer experiences for Wells Fargo. She contends banks can do bigger and better things than Uber anyway. "I've seen so many moments like that in my lifetime," she said. "When I was going to college in 1983, it was a big deal to get an ATM card. … Online banking was another, where once I started doing that I thought I would never go back to the old way. … I'm sorry, but Uber feels kind of small, compared to the profound change in how money is handled, how we can send it internationally, instantly. I think that's a bigger deal."

Sold: CIT has agreed to sell off its 30% ownership stake in a commercial aircraft leasing business called TC-CIT Aviation. Chairman and Chief Executive Ellen Alemany said that the decision is "another point of progress" in CIT's plan to become more of a traditional bank. Tokyo Century Corp., CIT's joint venture partner in the business, will acquire the stake for an undisclosed amount and become the sole owner.

Secrets to success: Citizens Bank of Edmond President and CEO Jill Castilla shared her story about saving a struggling bank in 2009 and offered three big lessons she learned along the way: comebacks do happen; engage with the community and be authentic in doing so; and be a good neighbor. For example, Citizens sponsors a popular monthly street festival in its small Oklahoma hometown, where it keeps bank branding to a minimum and commits to giving the spotlight to local vendors. Castilla, a repeat honoree in our rankings of the Most Powerful Women in Banking, gave her talk at the Women in Banking conference hosted by the Pennsylvania Bankers Association.

Jill Castilla, president and chief executive of Citizens Bank of Edmond in Oklahoma.

Influencer: In other news from the Pennsylvania conference, Patricia Husic, president and CEO of Centric Bank in Harrisburg, Pa., will be the namesake for a new "Woman of Influence" award in the state. Husic is a past chair of the state association, founded the women's conference several years ago, and received the inaugural award at the conference this month. It will be renamed the "Patricia A. Husic Woman of Influence Award" beginning in 2018. Husic is also a repeat honoree in our Most Powerful rankings.

Role call

Morgan Stanley has named Lisa Shalett head of wealth management investment resources. Shalett is currently head of investment and portfolio strategies for the wealth management business.

Beyond banking

Identity problem: When a pair of male and female colleagues at an employment service firm switched email signatures for a week, they showed how much gender bias can hamper women's careers. When Martin Schneider began signing all his client emails as Nicole Hallberg, Schneider found clients wouldn't listen to him, even when he was giving the same advice he usually did. People also underestimated, interrupted and disrespected him. One client asked him on a date. Meanwhile, Nicole, whose interactions had been noticeably slower, experienced a dramatic improvement. "Nicole had the most productive week of her career," Schneider tweeted. "I realized the reason she took longer is she had to convince clients to respect her. By the time she could get clients to accept that she knew what she was doing, I could get halfway through another client. I wasn't any better at the job than she was, I just had this invisible advantage."

Juxtapose these headlines: We couldn't help but notice two stories about new CEOs recently and the gender pay disparity in each. First, Yahoo replaced its female CEO, Marissa Mayer, with a man. Thomas McInerney will be paid much more than his predecessor (double her salary and twice as much in annual stock awards). He was previously chief financial officer for the media and Internet company IAC. And second, the pharmaceutical giant Glaxo named its very first female CEO, who will be paid 25% less than the man she is replacing. Glaxo cited Emma Walmsley's lack of experience in the top job as the reason for the pay difference. But even so, it's worth noting that Walmsley's targeted bonus is capped at 100% of her salary, whereas Andrew Witty was given the opportunity to collect 125% of his pay as a bonus. Walmsley, who is currently CEO of the company's consumer health care division, is breaking a gender barrier not just at her own company, but for the industry. She is the first female to manage one of the world's top 25 pharmaceutical companies.

Masculine feminine: More women are taking "men's jobs," rising to the C-suite and entering fields like medicine, law and business, but men aren't moving into "women's jobs" in the same way — unless they're disadvantaged (i.e., black, Hispanic, less educated, poor and immigrant men). As jobs in middle-skill fields like clerical and manufacturing began to disappear in recent years, men have moved into low-skill, low-paying jobs, while women moved into more high-skill work, according to Rutgers University researchers. The researchers tracked 15 years of census data across 448 occupations, classifying them as male- or female-dominated if they employed more than 60% of one gender in 2000.

Work to live, not live to work: Arianna Huffington wants to change the way people work because, she says, burning out isn't a measure of success. "The workplace and all the habits that we embody were introduced by men," she said, citing Eli Whitney, Ransom Olds and Henry Ford as examples. "It's time for women to say [those habits] are not working. I actually believe that women are going to take the lead in changing the way we work and live."

Bonnie McGeer contributed to this report. If you have some news you'd like us to include, send an email here.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Gender issues Diversity and equality Commercial banking Women in Banking
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER