Increasing gender diversity

Providing equal opportunities for women remains a key focus for Credit Suisse. According to the Credit Suisse Research Institute and our Gender 3000 report published in 2021, there is a strong and positive correlation between increased women in leadership and increased returns on capital, ESG and stock performance. We believe that increasing female representation in leadership supports the delivery of our business strategy. We design, offer and run multiple mentorships and career development programs to foster the professional growth of women throughout our organization. In 2021, women accounted for 40.0% of our total workforce and 28.7% of our leadership positions at the Vice President, Director and Managing Director levels. In addition to our overall target for representation of women by 2024, we have established targets for representation of women at the management level: 20% at the Managing Director level by 2025, and we strive to reach 27% at the Director level and 35% at the Vice President level by 2024.

Credit Suisse is a founding member of the Advance Network in Switzerland, the leading business association for gender equality, with the objective to reach a sustainable minimum of 30% female representation at all management levels across all member companies by 2030. In the UK, Credit Suisse has been a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter since June 2016 – a pledge to support the progression of women into senior roles across our UK legal entities. The Executive Committees of the UK legal entities and the leadership teams of each respective Executive Committee member have aimed for a minimum of 35% female representation. We are still working towards achieving our commitment to a minimum of 35% female representation in all committees and maintaining no less than 35% female representation in aggregate by 2024. As of August 2021, we exceeded this target on an aggregate basis, with over two-thirds of the committees achieving this on an individual basis. Therefore, we believe we are on track for our overall target for the end of 2024. Additionally, Credit Suisse was recognized in the UK as a Times Top 50 Employer for Women in 2021.

In Switzerland, as part of our continued commitment to gender equality, we extended primary and secondary caregiver leave following birth or adoption, tackling the stigma around maternity or paternity leave via a genderless benefit denomination.