Over the past decades, financial institutions worldwide or banks, in particular, have had to deal with the pressures of an industry that is continuously changing its game. New, or updated, market regulations, increasing defaults on loans due to unemployment, collapses in the housing market, and rising overhead costs, have all exhausted the banking system. Moreover, the fragmentation between large transaction volume branches and low transaction volume branches has substantially impacted numerous banks all over the world.
At the end of 2013, the World Bank Group adopted a new strategy, aiming at ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. To monitor the translation of its strategy into practice, the international institution has developed a Corporate Scorecard. It aggregates the contributions of all institutions that form the World Bank Group: the World Bank (WB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
According to a recent article published in several high rated Australian newspapers, „ the days of the bank boardrooms being the domain solely of suits and ties could soon be at an end” (Johnston and Bibby, 2010). This comes as a result of several banks such as Westpac and Commonwealth Bank who announced new policies to dramatically boost the number of women in management roles.
Over the last decade or so, there has been an increased focus and debate on gender diversity of top executives and managers of corporations. This was caused mainly by the low proportion of women reaching top positions (Grant Thornton, 2009), despite the proved positive effect of gender diversity on organizational performance (Smith et al, 2005).
The most prestigious awards in the global banking industry – the Euromoney Awards for Excellence – have reached their 19th edition, announcing the winners for the year 2010.
