Banks seem to have cancelled 65% of their diversity hiring programs
Is diversity hiring dead at investment banks? If you look to the US, the answer seems to be yes. The US Supreme Court banned affirmative action back in the summer of 2023. A few months later, it seems that only 11 of the 31 diversity schemes we spotted in 2022 still exist.
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Most seem to have simply fizzled out. For example, one bank ran a “Diversity Scholarship of Distinction” award that gave $15k for students applying to its summer internship and answered some questions about how an internship will change their lives and so on. There was a program for 2022 interns, for 2023 interns, and 2024 interns. For the moment at least, there is none for 2025 interns. Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment.
Others schemes have opened their doors to non-quota students. Take Morgan Stanley’s Early Insights program in New York, for instance: the 2024 scheme is categorised as a “diversity event” on the page, with big bold letter indicating that eligibility requirements were “historically underrepresented populations in the finance industry”. The 2025 edition is listed as an “insight program”. Historically underrepresented peoples are “encouraged to apply”, but the eligibility section says the program is “open to all”.
Women’s programs seem to have had the most staying power. “I’ve definitely seen a pull-back from ethnicity-focused diversity schemes,” one recruitment industry professional tells us. “Instead, the main focus is woman-focused schemes.”
Banks still have ambitious diversity targets, set at the end of the last decade. Six years ago, Goldman said it wanted 50% of its campus hires to be women, 11% to be black, and 14% to be Hispanic. In its 2023 people strategy report (the most recent available), it said the analysts and associates it recruited that year were 49% female, 9% black, and 13% Hispanic, respectively.
In some cases, banks seem to have met their targets. In 2022, for example, Citi set itself a goal for 11.5% of its US workforce to be black and 16% Hispanic in 2025; last year 11.5% were black, and 19% were Hispanic.
Students applying for jobs say diversity is still a significant advantage. “These schemes are still at large,” one student who had secured a front-office summer internship and worked with a diversity organization told us. “The concept of diversity hires does [still] come into play.”
Unfortunately, a lot of D&I professionals are slowly slipping out of the industry. “The work has dried up,” the recruiter said. “Post-George Floyd, there was a massive increase in D&I roles. Many of those new roles have been made redundant or been changed.”
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