Estate agencies who operate financial services arms that are regulate by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) face greater scrutiny of their internal diversity and inclusion policies, it has been revealed.

The UK’s financial regulator wants companies involved to respond to a discussion paper it has published which calls for financial services firms to help tackle the ‘serious inequalities and lack of inclusion between different groups [that] have been present in in our society for many years’.

The FCA was faster changes and higher standards of inclusivity and diversity within companies it regulates.

It wants to achieve this via firms improving their  policies, governance arrangements, accountability, remuneration arrangements and disclosure.

“However, we recognise that these improvements will only deliver real change when they are embedded in culture,” it says.

Larger agencies

Hundreds of larger estate agencies across the UK are FCA regulated because they are involved in regulated activities such as selling insurance or offering consumer credit, including most of the larger firms such as Countrywide, Connells, LSL, Winkworth, Savills and Purplebricks.

“An inclusive culture in which all staff can speak up allows the benefits of diversity to flourish,” the FCA paper says.

“Together, diversity and inclusion can reduce groupthink, encourage debate and innovation and thereby improve outcomes for consumers and across markets, supporting financial stability.”

“We are publishing this DP to engage financial firms and other stakeholders in a discussion on how we can accelerate the pace of meaningful change and what role we can most usefully play to support this change.”

The FCA has told The Negotiator that it will be proceeding with the initiative in a ‘proportionate’ way and that smaller companies will not be included.

Read the discussion paper.

Read agent Ellie Rees’s opinion piece about diversity within the industry,