- An HSBC banker’s report alleged widespread discrimination at the bank, Bloomberg reported.
- The report included comments like: “It’s never been harder … being a white man in banking.”
- HSBC told Insider it’s “looking into the issues raised.”
A junior manager at HSBC sent a scathing 48-page report to his bosses detailing allegations of widespread racial discrimination at the bank, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Ian Clarke, the report’s author and 15-year HSBC veteran, interviewed more than 100 coworkers about racism and diversity for the report, in which he concluded “abnormal levels of systemic discrimination” are prompting BIPOC recruits to leave at such high rates the bank is unlikely to hit its diversity goals, Bloomberg reported.
Clarke’s report, according to Bloomberg, also highlighted a list of comments employees had allegedly faced, including: “It’s never been harder than right now, being a white man in banking.”
“I just don’t like you. I’m not allowed to tell you why,” read another purported comment.
Clarke, who identified himself in the report as half-Black, half-white, and LGBTQ, according to Bloomberg, also said he and other HSBC employees witnessed white coworkers “committing physical and verbal sexual assaults.”
“We are committed to improving diversity and inclusion at HSBC, and while we are making progress, we know we have more work to do. When colleagues raise concerns we take them seriously and are looking into the issues raised,” HSBC spokesperson Matt Ward told Insider.
HSBC’s 2020 diversity report found just 7% of its US employees were Black, while that number dropped to 2% among senior leadership. White employees in the US, by comparison, made up 54% of overall employees but 66% of senior leadership.
But globally, according to Bloomberg, HSBC’s Black employees make up just 0.7% of its workforce.
Clarke identified five BIPOC employees who had left the firm, all of whom had been hired into more senior positions at JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg reported.
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