Women in Swiss Banking: Almost No Progress

3. The Biggest Number of Female Executives

No bank covered by the survey has more than a third of executive positions in female hands. Top of the rank is Postfinance, the financial arm of state-owned Swiss Post (see table below). Three of the nine executive positions are taken by women – Sylvie Meyer being in charge of retail, Felicia Koelliker of risk, legal and compliance, and Gabriela Laenger of the work environment. Sandra Lienhart, the ex-head of Cler, will replace Meyer as head of retail in March.

Credit Suisse and Edmond de Rothschild are joint second-placed, with a quarter of their executives being women. At the end of the table is Credit Suisse Switzerland, with one out of 15 jobs on the executive taken by a woman. Anke Bridge Haux is responsible for digitalization and products at the Credit Suisse division. To be sure, Serana Fioravanti in January took over from Philippe Clémençon as chief risk officer.

4. No Female Executives

And then there are those that still have no female executives. Raiffeisen, which is listed in the table below, is excused in the sense that it will have one female executive again starting in March.

In all, the picture that emerges from the comparison makes for somber reading. The ratio of female executives is 12 percent, according to the finews.com survey of banks. In absolute terms: 23 out of 188 executive board members are female.