Report: One Of World’s Largest Investment Firms Need Permission To Hire White Men — But Financial Giant Denies The Claims

According to The Sunday Times, State Street Global Advisors, one of the world’s largest investment firms, must gain special approval to hire white men.

The asset management unit of State Street Corp. will need to gain such permission as it launches a diversity hiring initiative.

“This is now front and central for State Street — it’s on every senior executive’s scorecard,” said Jess McNicholas, the bank’s head of inclusion, diversity, and corporate citizenship in London.

The development stems from a  Fox Business News report.

State Street denied that hiring teams needed “special approval to hire white men” but reaffirmed its goal of elevating certain races and ethnicities above others and “hold ourselves accountable for strengthening Black and Latinx owned businesses.”

Boston-based State Street Corp. reportedly has about 40,000 employees at more than 30 offices globally. It had $3.9 trillion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, 2021.

The firm aims to triple the number of Black, Asian, and other minority staff in senior positions by 2023, per The Sunday Times. If executives don’t meet the target, they will face lowered bonuses. When hiring middle management staff, recruiters will have to set up panels of four or five employees, including a woman and a person with a minority background.

The firm will still hire white men, McNicholas said, but recruiters are required to show that the panels interviewed women and minority applicants.

“All of our leaders have to demonstrate at their annual appraisals what they have done to improve female representation and the number of colleagues from ethnic-minority backgrounds.”

The company’s fresh effort comes after a recent report showing fewer than half of all business leaders (43%) are executing a fully developed DEI strategy for their full-time staff. Only 19% have a DEI strategy for contingent labor. The report noted that this past year has put racial, gender, and socioeconomic diversity top of mind for many employers, moving it past a “check the box” exercise.

Four years ago, State Street made news when it commissioned the statue of a girl staring down Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” sculpture for International Women’s Day. Known as the “Fearless Girl Statue,” it was later moved to the New York Stock Exchange building after complaints from the sculptor of the Charging Bull.