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Study casts doubts on investors’ diversity intentions

Published on: 10 Jan 2025

European investors are failing to treat diversity as an important factor when they search for external asset managers, according to recent research.

A study by consultancy bfinance, Seeking Diversity from Investment Managers, reviewed all manager searches it conducted in the year ending July 2024 and assessed whether clients treated diversity as a “significant”, “relevant” or “irrelevant” factor.

Study casts doubts on investors’ diversity

It found that diversity was irrelevant in 78% of searches, despite 35% of investors saying they were unlikely to “hire an external asset manager who lacks gender and/or ethnic diversity”. Just 14% thought diversity, equality and inclusion were significant, and 8% saw it as relevant.

While 41% of pension funds said they would be unlikely to pick non-diverse asset managers, just 22% of searches treated diversity as a significant or relevant consideration in their selection.

Only 38% of asset managers reported that more than 30% of their management personnel were women, and just 11% reported that more than 30% of their management personnel were from ethnic minorities.