Finance insures the contents of 20 million homes and provides pensions to 21 million people. Finance offers so much, but it still doesn’t offer enough for women. Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s review of gender diversity in finance shows that female representation on boards is less than a quarter and a mere 14% on executive committees. And these executive roles tend to be in corporate and support functions, such as HR and legal, as opposed to corporate leadership roles such as the CEO and CIO.2 This is especially striking as more women than men start out in financial services, only for their representation to diminish steadily through the ranks. The value of diversity This is an enormous missed opportunity. Research on the value of diversity is abundant. For example, McKinsey finds that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their industry median.3 According to Credit Suisse, companies with more diverse boards outperformed peers by 26% and had higher return on equity, lower leverage, and higher average net income growth.4  1  The City UK, Key Facts about UK-based financial and related professional services (April 2017). Available at: https://www.thecityuk.com/assets/2017/Reports-PDF/54c0ebf2b5/UK-Key-Facts-2017-updated.pdf 2 Empowering Productivity: Harnessing the Talents of Women in Financial Services (June 2015). Available at: https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/assets/pdf/Virgin-Money-Empowering-Productivity-Report.pdf 3 Mckinsey & Company, Diversity Matters (February 2015). Available a: https://assets.mckinsey.com/~/media/857F440109AA4D13A54D9C496D86ED58.ashx 4 Credit Suisse, Gender Diversity and Corporate Performance (July 2012).

At the same time, deposits from households and non-financial corporations also rose in October. Overall, more observations are needed to distinguish between shorter-term volatility and more lasting factors. Unlike in the case of monetary developments, there has been little change in credit growth. The annual growth rate of loans to the private sector (adjusted for loan sales and securitisation) remained at –0.4% in October, unchanged from September. But this development reflects further net redemptions in loans to non-financial corporations, which led to an annual rate of decline in these loans of –1.5%, down from –1.2% in September. The annual growth in MFI lending to households remained unchanged at 0.8% in October. To a large extent, subdued loan dynamics reflect the weak outlook for GDP, heightened risk aversion and the ongoing adjustment in the balance sheets of households and enterprises, all of which weigh on credit demand. Furthermore, in a number of euro area countries, capital constraints, risk perception and the segmentation of financial markets restrict credit supply. In order to ensure an adequate transmission of monetary policy to the financing conditions in euro area countries, it is essential to continue strengthening the resilience of banks where needed. The soundness of banks’ balance sheets will be a key factor in facilitating both an appropriate provision of credit to the economy and the normalisation of all funding channels. Decisive steps for establishing an integrated financial framework will help to accomplish this objective. A single supervisory mechanism (SSM) is one of the main building blocks.