TheCorporateCounsel.net

April 5, 2023

DEIA Efforts at the SEC: A Historical Perspective

The SEC’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion was created after my time at the SEC, and until recently I was not aware of the office’s history and the considerable impact that it has had on the agency. A recent SEC Historical Society event, which is available online, recounted the founding of OMWI (referred to as “OM-WEE”) and the office’s DEIA efforts over the past decade with a panel discussion involving OMWI’s Director, Pamela Gibbs, and former SEC Chairs Mary Shapiro, Mary Jo White and Jay Clayton.

OMWI was started thanks to, of all things, the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act required the SEC and other federal financial agencies to each establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion to be responsible for all matters relating to diversity in management, employment, and business activities. In accordance with Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC established OMWI in July 2011.

OMWI’s efforts are both inward facing toward the SEC and outward facing toward the financial services industry. In 2015, the SEC’s OMWI and the OMWIs of the other federal financial regulators created joint standards that were issued as a Final Interagency Policy Statement Establishing Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of the entities they regulate (Joint Standards) as required by Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The Joint Standards provide five areas that a regulated entity may consult to develop its diversity policies and practices:

– Organizational Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion;
– Workplace Profile and Employment Practices;
– Procurement and Business Practices;
– Practices to Promote Transparency and Organizational Diversity and Inclusion; and
– Self-Assessment.

It was clear from the SEC Historical Society program that the SEC’s OMWI had made a lot of progress, particularly at the agency, in promoting DEIA initiatives, while working hard to promote more diversity in the financial services industry. It is great to hear the perspectives of the former SEC Chairs on this topic, and it was particularly gratifying to hear how committed to these efforts they were during their tenures with the SEC.

– Dave Lynn