Our commitment
A message from Stanislas Roger
Deputy chief executive officer of SMBC BI and chair of the diversity and inclusion steering committee, SMBC EMEA Division
SMBC Group is committed to diversity and inclusion (D&I). We recognise that diversity of people, opinions and perspectives is vital for the sustainable growth of our organisation and benefits our customers and stakeholders.
I am honoured to be the chair of our D&I initiatives in EMEA and I am proud of the progress we have made since the establishment of our steering committee in 2016. Achievements include signing the Women in Finance Charter in 2017, which committed us to EMEA-wide diversity goals, and in 2019 and 2020 being selected for the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index and setting up country D&I councils across our largest markets.
We constantly seek new ideas to evolve our approach to inclusion. Our D&I steering committee was recently reorganised and now has a more diverse representation of leaders from both different nationalities and from across our employee networks. Our D&I strategy continues to expand in scope, with specific initiatives being put in place to support disability, gender, generations, ethnicity, race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. To demonstrate our commitment, our newly launched EMEA culture statement specifically encourages our employees to embrace diversity in all its forms.
We work closely with our employee-led DRIVE initiative and its networks, Balance, Black Employees & Allies, Collaborate and Niji. We also work with a select number of external partners who help us deliver on our D&I strategy and to ensure that SMBC Group continues to be an engaging and inclusive workplace for everyone.