The Office of Management and Budget has approved the federal banking agencies’ voluntary diversity self-assessment, the agencies said in a Federal Register filing. The self-assessment is based on diversity and inclusion assessment standards issued by the agencies last summer.
Since the standards were first proposed in 2013 under the Dodd-Frank Act, the American Bankers Association has worked with the agencies, urging them to keep the scope of the standards within the language of the statute and to recognize the many ways in which banks have long embraced diverse and inclusive workforces. As a result of ABA’s efforts, disclosure is completely voluntary. Moreover, in making any disclosures, each institution has discretion in determining whether and how to disclose their outreach efforts to the public and may ask that any information disclosed to a supervisor be kept confidential.
ABA will continue to work with the agencies on outreach efforts to explain the standards and to monitor how supervisors apply the guidelines. For more information, contact ABA’s Rob Rowe.
