Top banks eliminate or reduce DEI talk in annual reports

The post-George Floyd era of the U.S. banking industry is over — unambiguously so.

After several years when banks touted their commitments to hire more women and minorities, they are now dropping, or watering down, public mentions of such pledges.

The new posture on diversity, equity and inclusion, which coincides with the start of the second Trump administration, has been on display in the banks' latest annual reports.

A year ago, many large publicly traded American banks published data in their annual reports about DEI topics, including their efforts to make their workforces less white and less male and how they were seeking to achieve pay equity. It was part of a trend that had been gaining steam following Floyd's 2020 murder and the protests it sparked.

This year's annual reports suggest that the Trump administration's hostility to DEI efforts in corporate America is having an impact on banks — at least with regard to their public messaging.

Wells Fargo, for example, stated a year ago that everyone at the bank "at every level" and "in every role" was expected to "champion diversity and inclusion." That language was missing from the annual report the bank filed this year.

The $1.9 trillion-asset bank did continue to provide data on workplace diversity. It stated that its U.S. workforce was 51% white at the end of last year, down from 53% a year earlier.

What follows is a look at how seven other large and regional banks have changed their DEI reporting in their annual reports. Some of them omitted discussions of diversity entirely, while others took a more nuanced approach, addressing the topic but in less detail than they did previously.

M&T Bank

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A year ago, Buffalo, New York-based M&T reported that its recruitment team strived to create and maintain diverse representation at all levels. It said employees attended 74 "diversity-based recruiting events" in 2023, including gatherings focused on hiring "people of color, veterans, LGBTQ+, individuals with disabilities and women."

M&T also discussed the role of its chief diversity officer, pointed to data showing that 44% of its total corporate hires in 2023 were people of color, and stated that its board of directors received "regular updates on the company's diversity, including and belonging efforts."

All of those specific discussions were gone from the bank's most recent report.

Bank of America

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Bank of America's latest report excludes a section called "Diversity and Inclusion" that was part of the prior year's filing.

In that earlier report, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based banking giant touted the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of its board and senior management team and said its "practices and policies" had" resulted in strong representation" across the bank, while its "broad employee population" mirrored "the clients and communities" it served.

The word "diversity" appeared 14 times in the prior report. "Inclusion" appeared 10 times.

In BofA's latest report, those words haven't entirely been erased. In the "Human Capital" section, the company said: "We are deliberate about the many ways we seek to create an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to achieve their career goals. This is core to our values, to our efforts to make the corporation a great place to work and to delivering on responsible growth for our clients, customers and communities around the globe."

Bank of America is also changing some of its internal policies around diversity and inclusion. It will no longer have representation goals, nor will it require a diverse slate of candidates for certain job openings, a source familiar with the situation told American Banker.

Bank of America is emphasizing the word "opportunity" instead of "diversity," though CEO Brian Moynihan said Tuesday that diversity and inclusion are still part of the company.

"What we've always been is a bank of opportunity," Moynhian said during a meeting of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. "So we think about creating an opportunity for our teammates and how do we do that? We go out and hire from all areas and bring people into our company … Once they get in, the opportunity is there for a lifetime."

Citigroup

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Citigroup, which had been one of the most vocal banks on diversity and inclusion, greatly scaled back the DEI language in its most recent report.

A year ago, the megabank's report included a detailed section called "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion." The 550-word section covered Citi's efforts on pay equity, representation goals and the board's commitment to ensuring diversity at the highest levels of management.

In its latest report, the entire "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" section was omitted. A new section, "Pay Transparency and Pay Equity," was added, covering Citi's efforts to ensure that employees of different gender and racial backgrounds receive "like for like" compensation for similar jobs.

While the report was largely scrubbed of diversity language, the bank did tuck in one mention of workforce diversity, saying: "Citi's performance and the performance of its individual businesses largely depend on the talents and efforts of its diverse and highly qualified employees."

Like Bank of America, Citi has set aside its representation goals and requirements around diverse job candidates, according to a memo last week from CEO Jane Fraser.

Truist Financial

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Truist's most recent report includes tweaks around diversity-related language, but it does not entirely scrap the notion of workplace inclusion.

In the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company's prior report, it said it "aims to provide teammates an inclusive and energizing environment that empowers teammates to learn, grow and have meaningful careers." It also included a "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" paragraph, stating that "inclusivity, belonging and authenticity are at the core of Truist's evolving culture" and that "DEI continues to play an instrumental role across this evolution."

A chart titled "Teammate Diversity" showed the gender and race/ethnicity makeup of employees across all levels of the company.

That same chart appears in the latest report, but it was renamed "Teammate Composition." In addition, while the "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" heading from the prior year was scrapped, the idea of inclusivity was not.

In fact, the bank writes: "Truist aspires to foster a performance-based culture that is reinforced by belonging and inclusivity … Through inclusivity, we strive for business settings where every teammate is respected, everyone matters and has a voice, and everyone feels welcome and empowered to make meaningful contributions."

U.S. Bancorp

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Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp removed a section from its report on "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion," but it also added language elsewhere about its employees respecting and valuing "each other's differences, strengths and perspectives."

And another section of the report, titled "Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action" and stating that the bank was committed to a diverse workforce, was unchanged.

A U.S. Bancorp spokesperson said in a statement to American Banker: "Our focus remains growing our business, providing access to opportunities and resources that individuals and organizations need to thrive financially, and supporting our employees."

"Diverse perspectives and experiences continue to be a core component to achieving these goals. It is important that we make the right decisions for our business to be compliant with all laws and regulations, while creating an environment where our employees and clients can succeed and feel welcomed."

Capital One Financial

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Capital One's earlier report included a section titled "Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging" that was excluded from its most recent report.

Also gone were measures of workforce diversity that had previously been included, such as the fact that in the United States, among "associates who are vice president level and above," roughly 34% were women and 29% were "racially/ethnically diverse" at the end of 2023.

However, McLean,Virginia-based Capital One did not drop all references to its "diversity, inclusion and belonging" strategy this year.

Its most recent report stated that the strategy is "developed and executed in close collaboration with leaders and teams across the organization." The report also discussed the role of the bank's chief diversity and inclusion officer and stated that it uses "diversity-related recruiting events."

Morgan Stanley

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Morgan Stanley also did not entirely ditch references to workforce diversity.

Like last year, the Wall Street investment bank disclosed data on gender and ethnic diversity. Some 35% of its U.S. workforce was "ethnically diverse," and 40% of its global workforce was women, according to its most recent report. Those percentages were unchanged from a year earlier.

Morgan Stanley also referred this year to its "commitment to diversity and inclusion," though it omitted certain other diversity-related language and added a new reference to "meritocracy."

"Meritocracy is at the heart of Morgan Stanley's talent development," the bank's most recent report stated. "We believe a workforce that represents the societies in which we live and work, and our global client base, is integral to Morgan Stanley's continued success."