Women at Canadian Banks: Thick Glass Ceiling

DBRS Morningstar has published a commentary titled, “Women at Canadian Banks: Thick Glass Ceiling.” The third in an annual series of International Women’s Day commentaries on women at Canadian banks, this year’s report not only examines the role of the large six Canadian banks in establishing norms for gender parity in the workplace, but broadens the scope of research by including other Canadian regional and specialized banks, cooperatives, and credit unions in the DBRS Morningstar-rated universe.

DBRS Morningstar found that despite similarities at the board level, there are fewer women at the chief executive officer (CEO) level at the banks than at credit unions. “Canadian banks, however, have more female CEOs than in our sample of U.S. and European banks,” noted Maria Khoury, Senior Vice President, North American Financial Institutions. “Similarly, credit unions have a larger proportion of women across the remainder of their executive ranks, while the banks tend to have fewer women in roles with profit-and-loss responsibilities.”