Female managers rising in the financial ranks

For a long time, female fund managers were viewed as something of an endangered species in the investment sector. But while that may be case in some places, things are quietly changing in Asia,as more women move up the ranks in the male-dominated industry.

Research by management consulting firm Oliver Wyman found that Asia has by far the highest representation of women in asset management, comprising 32 percent of portfolio managers as of December 2015, more than double the global average of 15 percent.

The number in China is also encouraging. Female managers ran nearly a quarter - 24.2 percent - of mutual funds in China as of March this year, according to Chinese financial data research firm Wind Info. This compared with only 2 percent of assets and open-end funds in the United States being managed by women, according to a report by data provider Morningstar.

Rapid economic development in Asian countries and the relatively short development history of the financial industry in the region has resulted in an acute skills shortage, which is creating more opportunities for women to move forward in careers in finance, industry experts said.

They said the demand for skilled and experienced investment professionals may also prompt employers in Asia to overlook concerns about a woman's current or future family commitments.

"The industry here really started taking off only in the last 15 to 20 years, and this is a period when the industry needed lots of new professionals quickly and firms were willing to search beyond the traditional talent pool to recruit and promote female investment professionals," says Gillian Kwek, a portfolio manager at Fidelity International in Singapore.

Kwek, who has more than 15 years of experience in the asset management industry, says that easier access to domestic help - including support from parents living nearby who were happy to assist with family matters such as baby-sitting - could also help to explain the higher female representation in Asia than in the US and Europe.

In addition, the larger talent pool of qualified women in the finance industry was also seen as one of the reasons why there were more female fund managers in Asia than elsewhere.

The latest research on gender diversity in investment management by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute found that seven out of the eight countries with the highest percentages of female CFA members were in Asia.

Vietnam has the highest percentage - 43 percent of female CFA members - while the Chinese mainland was ranked fourth at 31.3 percent. That compares with 16.4 percent in the US.

"In China, we have seen more women moving up the ranks in the investment management industry," says Jia Lijun, head of the CFA Institute's China branch, noting that there will be more opportunities for women as China's financial industry matures and continues to develop.

"As a veteran with more than 30 years in the financial services industry, I am absolutely positive that leading investment firms in China are starting to actively seek a wide range of perspectives and are gradually realizing that diversity in decision-making is good for clients, teams and business," he says.

The rise of information technology and the boom in the financial technology sector in China have also contributed to higher female representation in the finance industry overall.

"The internet has become a main driver of growth and there is a shortage of good talent. This has created more opportunities for women to move forward in their careers, not because they are women but because they are good managers," Pan Jing, chief marketing officer of the Chinese online financing firm Dianrong.com, was quoted as saying in the survey by Oliver Wyman.

Despite the encouraging trend in Asia, empirical evidence and industry research still point to a trend in which women are scarce in financial services industry on a global basis and are underrepresented relative to other professions.

Globally, only 18 percent of CFA members are women, well below the percentage of female workers around the world, according to the research by the institute.

In the financial services industry, women occupied only 16 percent of positions at the executive committee level, the Wyman report showed.

Experts say finance being a profession that disproportionately rewards those who work long and inflexible hours, could be a factor that discourages women from entering the industry. Family responsibilities and insufficient flexible working hours often lead to a mid-career conflict and a less attractive career trade-off for women than men, they say.

The image of the investment industry - which is often seen as a competitive, aggressive and harsh profession - has also affected its attractiveness as a destination for female graduates, some experts say.

Nonetheless, Fidelity International's Kwek says it is reasonable to expect the industry to embrace greater gender diversity as her clients become more diverse.

lixiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/18/2016 page30)