The WiF Charter applies to its Founders and is open to all regulated financial services firms operating in Luxembourg, including but not limited to credit institutions, investment funds, insurance companies, management companies, investment firms, and Professionals of the Financial or the Insurance Sector (PSF or PSA), as well as service providers whose operations directly support the Luxembourg financial sector, provided that such service providers are members of, or otherwise duly affiliated with, as applicable, at least one of the WiF Charter’s Founding Members (ABBL, ACA, ALFI, LuxCMA, LuxFLAG or LuxSE).

To become a signatory, the organisation has to fill out, sign, and submit the application form to the LSFI team: womeninfinancecharter@Isfi.lu

Submission of the form indicates CEO/Senior Luxembourg Representative approval from the joining party for signing up to the WiF Charter. After your submission, the LSFI team will be in contact with you regarding the next steps.

In case of doubts, please contact the LSFI team (womeninfinancecharter@Isfi.lu), and the LSFI team will provide you with all the necessary information and guidelines.

Any organisation that requires assistance can contact the LSFI at the following email address: womeninfinancecharter@lsfi.lu

WiF Charter signatories will receive each year a data collection request in September, in which they will be asked to fill the questionnaire for the WiF Charter annual progress report. The signatories will have until mid-November to return the completed questionnaire. Exact timeline and dates for the annual progress report data collection will be communicated annually, ahead of the data collection campaign.

Each WiF Charter signatory must provide metrics reflecting their current situation based on their latest available data during the reporting year. The data can be from any date between 1 January and 30 September of the reporting year. For example, data as of 31 March is acceptable, as it falls within this period.

As per the WiF Charter commitment, signatories should set a headline numerical target (e.g. 30%) for female representation at a selected senior management level for a defined year. This must include a target year and possibly a timeframe (1-3-5 years) with optional ad interim target(s) to reach the final target that has been set.

Yes, but each signatory is free to choose its own targets at its selected senior management level. At least one of the following Targets is mandatory: Board level, Executive Committee / C-suite level,or Senior Management level.

The following Targets are optional (not mandatory): Headline targets for middle/junior management and interim targets at all levels are optional.

Please note targets can be conservative, as you can also work on maintaining your current situation.

During the annual data collection campaign, if you were already a signatory, you can either provide the target set last year or update it, if there have been any changes.

The endorsement doesn’t have an expiration date, and signatories set their own target(s) and timeframe by which they intend to achieve the target(s) in question. However, signatories are asked to report annually on the metrics and progress made towards achieving objectives and targets. Therefore, if a signatory organisation fails to report once, it will lose its signatory status and will be removed from the Charter’s list.

An organisation can become a signatory at any time during the year.

New Charter signatories that join before the beginning of the data collection of each year (by 31st August) are included in that year’s data collection and report.

Signatories joining between the beginning of the data collection and the annual report publication date will be included only in the new joiners list of the Charter’s annual progress report; however, they will start reporting the following year, unless they agree to complete the questionnaire and set their targets immediately if they sign up after the data collection period has begun.

To facilitate the reporting process, the WiF Charter’s founders have designated the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) as external coordinating entity and data partner. The LSFI will also oversee coordination with the Steering Committee composed of the Charter’s founding members (ABBL, ACA, ALFI, LuxCMA, LUXFLAG and LuxSE) and will take charge of directing and managing the reporting process. This streamlined approach guarantees a unified and centralized method for all signatory organisations.

The LSFI discloses on a yearly basis a WiF Charter annual progress report by the end of Q1, with the data referring to the previous year. The report is available on the LSFI webpage here.

As stated in the Pledge and in the WiF Charter Guidelines, signatories organisations must support transparency by publicly and annually reporting their progress against the set targets. It will be considered good practice for signatories to include a Women in Finance section in their Annual Report. The LSFI will publish an aggregated and anonymised annual report covering signatories’ progress against the collective targets. The report is available on the LSFI webpage here.

There are no specific criteria that define what should fall under, for example, C-level executives versus Senior Managerial roles. Organisations can use different seniority levels (board; executive committee; senior management; middle and junior management; and other staff) and categorize according to what fits best. It is key to avoid double counting.

While these levels may not map directly onto organisations’ in-house hierarchical structure, they provide a means of comparison across all signatories.

Relative to the definition of “senior management”, employees in middle management and junior management roles were identified as one level below or two levels below senior management level, respectively.

Relative to the definition of “Other”, were defined as employees with non-managerial responsibilities.

Board members based abroad should be accounted for and the targets should also reflect that.

When it comes to the employee count, this must be only on the workforce working for the Luxembourg-based branch office irrespective of the residency of the employee.

No. The Luxembourg WiF Charter represents the Luxembourg financial sector and its employees. To determine whether an employee should be counted in the WiF Charter statistics, the key criterion is whether the employee is on the payroll of the Luxembourg branch. If so, they can be included.

Groups may choose to consolidate their subsidiaries in their target setting as long as those subsidiaries are located in Luxembourg.

Although with distinct targets and actions, both Charters share the goal of enhancing and embracing increased diversity and inclusion within organizations, at all levels. While the Diversity Charter Lëtzebuerg has a broader scope covering the EU non-discrimination criteria and beyond, across multiple sectors, the WiF Charter takes a focused approach, concentrating its efforts on achieving gender balance and gender diversity in Luxembourg’s financial sector. For this reason, they are complementary.

Because your organisation may serve clients across multiple sectors, the following rule applies to all staff metrics and targets for service providers (Senior Management, Middle and Junior Management, and remaining staff): include only employees dedicated 100% to servicing the Luxembourgish financial sector. Do not include staff who split their time between financial and non-financial clients.

This rule does not apply to Board and ExCo/C-suite members, which should reflect your organization’s overall governance body.