Jane Fraser becomes the new top woman of the American Citibank. She is the first woman to hold such a position at a major American bank. Citigroup is the third largest bank in the United States.
Europe
Not a single large bank in the Netherlands is run by a woman. In 2016, ABN AMRO had a first with Olga Zoutendijk as the first female supervisory director of a large bank.
In the European banking world, too, women at the top remain the exception rather than the rule. The largest bank in the eurozone, the Spanish Banco Santander, has had top woman Ana Botín since 2014. At the end of 2019, the British bank NatWest got Alison Rose as director. She was the first woman at the top of a major British bank.
Women’s quota
Last week it was announced that in the Netherlands on the boards of directors, the day-to-day management of companies, the percentage of women has increased from 8.5 percent in 2019 to 12.5 percent in 2020. In the supervisory boards, which supervise the management, the percentage rose from 26.8 to 29.5 percent.
A majority in the House of Representatives voted last year for a women’s quota at the top of the corporate world. Under the law, which is still in the making, at least 30 percent of supervisory boards must be women. Of the 94 companies, 51 now meet that quota. Last year there were 30. There is no plan yet for a women’s quota for the boards of directors.
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