Professor Barbara Casu on how gender diversity on Boards can reduce misconduct

Can gender diversity on Boards reduce misconduct?

That's what my guest on this episode, Barbara Casu of The Business School in London, explored in recent research into the banking sector. Barbara is a Professor of Banking and Finance and she's also Director of Centre for Banking Research. In a paper published in December, Barbara and her colleague Dr Angela Gallo showed that banks with a strong female presence on the board of directors incurred fewer financial penalties for wrongdoing.

The study, titled Gender Diversity and Bank Misconduct, uncovered data suggesting that banks with strong diversity at the top were more compliant, and tended to avoid the same level of financial punishment compared to those with male-dominated boardrooms, with significant equivalent savings of $7.48 million per year.

On the episode, we explore the impetus behind the research, what they discovered and what the implications are for the industry going forward. Barbara's insights are fascinating and illustrate that if we want to mitigate Human Risk, a focus on diversity and inclusion is critical.

For more on the Centre for Banking Research 👉https://www.cass.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/cbr

To read more about the research 👉https://www.cass.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2019/december/gender-diverse-boardrooms-reduce-bank-misconduct-penalties-by-748m-per-year-study-finds

You can download the paper 👉https://www.cass.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/510975/Arnaboldi_et_al_2020.pdf