By Barbara Frankel
Six federal agencies recently released joint standards to assess diversity efforts of the financial institutions they represent. Unfortunately, the standards have no means of accountability — they are entirely voluntary and require only self-assessment.
The standards came from the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWIs), established in eight financial agencies and 12 Federal Reserve banks. The Dodd-Frank financial-reform law, signed into law by President Obama in 2010, requires that the OMWI assess “the diversity policies and practices of entities” regulated by the agencies. The six agencies releasing these standards are the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Credit Union Administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
