Corporate governance expectations in financial services have never been higher. Grant Thornton's latest report examines a sector with real strengths — and real gaps.
Drawing on findings from this year's Corporate Governance Review, Grant Thornton analyses board effectiveness across banking, insurance and investment management in the FTSE 350, tracking the measures and metrics that indicate good governance outcomes.
The picture that emerges is one of a sector operating from a position of relative strength, but where structure alone does not guarantee effective oversight.
The report covers:
- The Financial Services Report Card — a snapshot of where the sector is ahead of the curve, where it is closing the gap, and where it still falls short, from board independence and gender diversity to evaluation disclosures and culture reporting.
- Key findings by topic — detailed analysis of board independence, chair tenure, diversity policy disclosures, gender and ethnic representation, board size, meeting frequency, director re-election, board evaluation quality, and internal controls disclosure across all three sub-sectors.
- Spotlight issues — a deeper look at two critical areas: the state of culture reporting across financial services, where quality varies significantly despite extensive disclosure; and board skills in cyber and data, where the sector lags even the wider FTSE 350 despite cyber being universally identified as a principal risk.
- Findings by sub-sector — a breakdown of where banking, insurance and investment management each lead and where gaps remain, including emerging concerns around AI governance, private assets oversight and operational resilience.
Learn More:
Read the full report here for the analysis of what good governance looks like in financial services — and what the sector needs to do next.