Diversity and equality

A report to Congress from the National Credit Union Administration says the regulator has made "steady strides" toward greater diversity in its workforce and operations, but that progress is "just the beginning."

The agency has suggested it could go beyond enforcing fair-lending laws to urge financial institutions to help narrow the wealth gap. But those very same laws pose obstacles to achieving that goal.

After Wells Fargo became the first of the largest U.S. banks to do away with mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment complaints last year, Goldman Sachs Group is being urged to take steps in the same direction.

Activist investors are pressuring big banks to further curtail lending to the fossil-fuel industry, undergo so-called racial-equity audits and disclose more about their lobbying practices and financing of nuclear weapons manufacturers.

The credit union has made a four-year commitment to support the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and Greenwood Rising, a local history center.

Mehrsa Baradaran, a University of California, Irvine, professor and former banking lawyer, has worked hard to close the racial wealth gap and could further such goals as head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, wrote 34 caucus members in a letter to President Biden.

JPMorgan Chase said it plans to hire 300 additional Black and Latinx wealth advisers by 2025 to serve more clients from those communities and allow employees from diverse backgrounds to advance in their careers.

Brown, who was most recently Goldman's chief diversity officer, will join Citigroup in the coming months as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and global head of talent.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase also received high marks for transparency in reporting how they are paying women and employees of color, but Goldman Sachs, KeyCorp and Citizens Financial Group still have work to do, according to the advocacy investor firms Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact.

Several organizations serving the industry are speaking out following a series of murders in Atlanta.

"On streets, online and in many Asian-owned small businesses, we are seeing physical assault, verbal harassment and refusal of service," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in a memo to staff. "These racist acts cannot — and will not — be tolerated."

JPMorgan Chase scrubbed its bylaws of gender designations as pressure grows from both society and investors on global businesses to show they are diversifying and becoming more inclusive.

The two banks are pushing back against shareholder requests for sweeping audits of how they handle racial equity as the industry faces mounting public scrutiny of its historic role in economic disparities.

Michael Moeser, senior analyst at PaymentsSource, talks to Nikki Darden, head of global marketing integration at Citigroup; and Cheryl Guerin, executive vice president of North America marketing and communications at Mastercard, about the True Name feature on their cards.

The new group is made up of leaders from institutions with assets of $300 million or less and aims to help foster collaboration, mentorship opportunities and more.

With a steady stream of Senate hearings held on the racial wealth gap and inequities in the financial system, the new chairman has set a consumer-focused agenda that leans further left than even past Democratic chairs.

Women now account for half of Citigroup's 16-person board, the most of the 20 largest global banks, after Michael Corbat stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Jane Fraser.

The Cleveland company is more than doubling an earlier commitment in order to support racial equity and environmental sustainability.

There’s a theory in corporate America that women in positions of power don’t help other women. Citigroup Chief Executive Jane Fraser doesn’t buy it.

Juan Fernandez Ceballos will take the helm at the state league following Paul Stull’s retirement this summer.