Japan’s financial regulators have warned that regional banks are prone to “gender-washing” in disclosures to investors due to legal ambiguity over leadership roles occupied by women.
An average of just 13.7 per cent of managers at regional banks were women, compared with an average 20.8 per cent at the country’s three megabanks, according to a survey of 100 regional banks published by the Financial Services Agency last month.
But the tally included positions that would be considered relatively junior at most banks and did not typically oversee many subordinates. Once those titles were stripped out, the survey showed that only an average 8.1 per cent of women held managerial roles at the regional lenders.