MUFG has announced its commitment to supporting and improving gender diversity and inclusion as it becomes a signatory to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter.

The group has pledged a sustainable increase of 2% year-on-year in the proportion of women in senior management roles by 2022, with this commitment just the start of a long-term, ambitious strategy to drive sustainable, meaningful change across the Group.

Masahiro Kuwahara, Chief Executive of MUFG's core banking unit in EMEA, and David King, Chief Executive of the securities business in EMEA, will be responsible for gender inclusion and diversity across MUFG in the UK.

Ensuring progress against these targets will form part of Kuwahara and King's personal performance objectives, with these expectations also embedded into the objectives of their management teams.

The commitment forms part of the MUFG Inclusion & Diversity strategy which aims to address the need to improve the representation of women at MUFG.

Masahiro Kuwahara said:

“Signing the Women in Finance Charter is part of a series of initiatives we are undertaking to ensure we have more women in senior management positions at MUFG. To drive this effectively, we are holding our management committee accountable for progress and have specifically dedicated performance objectives to address the issue. Over the next five years we will be putting considerable effort into meeting our target and look forward to continuing our efforts in years to come."

David King said:

“Having more women in senior management roles is incredibly important to us and we will be making a real effort to change our gender balance. Signing the Women in Finance Charter is an important first step in a number of initiatives that we are taking to address this issue. Better gender diversity will be key to our success and critical if we are serious about being one of the world's leading financial institutions."