FN: Commission drops MiFID gender quotas

24 October 2011

The European Commission has dropped a controversial rule that would have imposed gender quotas upon firms regulated under new securities trading rules, after it was criticised for trying to introduce gender legislation via the “back door".

Introduction of quotas for female employees had been sneaked into the European Commission’s review of the Market in Financial Instruments Directive, Europe’s key piece of securities trading regulation that was originally introduced in 2007. Leaked versions of the MiFID II proposals – part of an effort to make markets more transparent – stipulated that firms wishing to be authorised as data service providers under the new rules would have to set a target to promote gender balance on its management body that “shall not be less than one third of each gender by 31 December, 2015”. Leading financial services gender equality campaigners criticised the tactic of crowbarring gender policy into financial services legislation. The official MiFID text, published last week, dropped the proposal.

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