By Caroline Graham, Editor WeAreTheCity India
Bank giant Barclays has announced that it is creating a new financial product which will allow investors to bet on companies with women at the top.
On Tuesday 9th July, the British-based bank giant began trading ETNs, or exchange-traded notes, that track a “Women in Leadership” (WIL) index of US companies with gender-diverse leadership. The new ETNs will cater to investors who seek social value as well as profitable returns.
Research shows that companies with a good number of women in charge tend to perform well for investors. Now Barclays BCLYF has launched a product to enable investors to play the female leader corner of the market.
The new index will be composed of companies with a female chief executive officer or women making up at least one-fourth of the board of directors, Barclays said in a statement.
“Women are significantly underrepresented in corporate executive leadership, yet a growing body of third-party research suggests that gender-diverse leadership may correlate with relatively stronger corporate performance, as compared to companies with less gender-diverse leadership,” said Barbara Byrne, Vice Chairman in Investment Banking. “We believe that providing ETNs and indices that enable investors to allocate capital to this theme will provide a market-based approach to help catalyze change.”
