The city watchdog bans the use of the term “Chinese Walls” in its rules and guidelines as it tries to encourage a more inclusive culture in the financial sector.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has “taken steps more recently to begin to identify and remove non-inclusive language from legal instruments when creating new rules or amending existing rules,” she said. said Wednesday, pinning the term “Chinese walls” as an example.
Such “non-inclusive” language will be phased out of its manual – which sets out the rules governing the financial sector – and replaced with more inclusive words or alternative expressions, he said.
The new directions came as the FCA, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England laid out plans to strengthen inclusion and diversity in the 60,000 UK financial companies subject to their regulation, as well as internally.
Only 43% of the regulator’s management team are women, and only 13% are from an ethnic minority. However, both have improved slightly from the previous year.
As of 2017, the PRA has removed terms including president and “other gender-related terms” in an effort to be more inclusive.
The term “Chinese walls” has long been used in the city to describe the barriers that banks, insurers, brokers and asset managers put in place to keep ministerial information confidential and manage conflicts of interest. It is believed to be a reference to the Great Wall of China.
These terms and phrases are usually found in older parts of the FCA handbook, he said, adding that the impending changes would not alter the scope of the rules.
