And finally…Bank of England to adopt gender neutral language

The 323 year old Bank of England has outlined the new guidelines to senior bankers in a move that is being seen as a response to criticism it has received over a lack of diversity in its own upper ranks.

The institution’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said it was using an update to its Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) documents as an opportunity to swap out titles like “chairman” for the more gender-neutral term “chair”.

It also said that the changes to the “Senior Managers and Certification Regime” “form part of the PRA’s commitment to encourage equality and diversity at regulated firms”.

It has also proposed changing the way individuals are addressed in terms of pronouns like “his/her”.

And it also plans updating terminology like “grandfathering” – referring to activities or entities that are allowed to continue operating under old rules – to “conversion”.

The Bank has faced criticism over its lack of senior female managers and its gender pay gap, which it has come under pressure from MPs to close.

Male staff at the Bank are paid almost a quarter more than female employees, its latest gender pay gap report found.

The fact that most banknotes feature famous men on the back rather than women has also become a controversial issue.

In October, Treasury committee chair Nicky Morgan wrote to the chancellor asking about efforts being made to encourage gender and ethnic diversity at the Bank.

The new changes to language used on official Bank documents are expected to result in one-off administrative costs.

However, the PRA assured “these are not expected to be material”.