Key institutions show progress, but room for improvement in female leadership positions
A recent report from the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) highlights Singapore’s financial institutions as being consistent with global trends in gender balance. The institutions tracked in this year’s global Gender Balance Index (GBI) include the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board, OCBC, DBS, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), GIC, and Temasek. These institutions have shown significant improvements over the past three years, though challenges remain in achieving more female leadership in senior roles.
Among the tracked institutions, CPF Board saw a remarkable improvement, rising to 12th place in the GBI from 34th the previous year. This was mainly due to the appointment of two women, Melissa Khoo and Goh Fang Min, to top positions, boosting its score by 40 points. CPF’s performance highlights the increasing representation of women in pension funds, which now hold the highest share of women in top positions across various sectors.
For commercial banks, OCBC experienced a decline in its ranking, falling to 9th place from 2nd, but this was due to a higher-than-expected proportion of women in senior roles. OCBC is the only bank with both a female CEO and CFO, and its C-suite is also predominantly women, which affected its GBI score. In contrast, DBS made progress, improving its ranking to 26th, with 29% of its executive members being women.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), while showing improvement, saw a slight dip in its ranking, moving to 85th place from 81st. Nevertheless, MAS has a significant proportion of women in senior positions, with 30% of its senior staff being female, aligning it with other ASEAN countries.
Temasek and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign funds, experienced setbacks in gender balance. Temasek’s ranking fell to 30th from 27th, with women holding 22% of executive roles and 9% of board positions. GIC maintained its 36th-place ranking but saw a slight decline in its score, with 22% of executives being women and 7% on the board.
While there has been progress, particularly in pension funds, the report highlights that opportunities for female leadership in senior roles remain underutilized across various sectors. It calls for a renewed focus on advancing gender parity in leadership positions, particularly in sovereign funds, which historically have lagged behind in gender balance
