(Bloomberg) -- The investment banking arm of SEB AB has created a program to hire more graduates from minority groups, marking a first for Sweden's bank industry.
Stockholm-based SEB says it wants to see applications from young people who haven't been able to build the kind of network that opens doors because of the socioeconomic or geographic hurdles they've faced. The bank says it specifically wants to reach graduates who might “feel intimidated” by the financial world.
Alexis Cousins recently joined SEB's debt capital markets team as a sustainability adviser within the investment bank. It was her first job after taking a break from the Stockholm banking scene, which she's previously described as “closed-off and elite.” Cousins says she pitched the idea of targeting minority graduates in October, but it was only possible to launch it now due to Covid-related delays.
For the past half year, Sweden's finance industry has had to confront allegations that its doors are closed to all but a select few. The debate took off in December, after a prominent hedge-fund manager who'd grown up in the Caribbean spoke out about the culture of bias he'd experienced from banks in Stockholm. Sean George said he'd failed to get a single interview, despite speaking Swedish fluently.
George ended up starting his own hedge fund at Strukturinvest, where he even set up a program to attract students from minority groups to the world of portfolio investment. But he says Sweden's banking industry remained a closed universe to people like him.
George says he's encouraged by the progress that's been made since he and others have spoken out. “When we started raising the issue we could not have imagined the rate of change to be this rapid,” he said in an interview.
Marta Stenevi, Sweden's minister for gender equality, recently said that board representation among ethnic minorities is “even worse“ than the gender gap, referring to a report published in March.
Cousins at SEB says the new program, called “Diversify Finance,” aims to attract university students in Sweden who have an interest in finance, “but have a background that is underrepresented in the industry.”
This year, some of the biggest banks in Sweden started holding diversity and inclusion workshops and George was invited by Sweden's major television networks to discuss the issue.
SEB's new project targeting minorities suggests the industry is now starting to put words into action, George said.
“This could very well force others to follow,” he said.
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