Markets Media spoke with Shui Yee Leung, Executive Director, APAC Convertible Bonds, Nomura International, who won Excellence in Commodities at the 2024 Women in Finance Asia Awards.

Who have been the main influences in your career?

Early on in my career, I was fortunate to have worked with two separate business leaders that supported and directed me to take on progressive opportunities outside my comfort zone, facilitating my growth to the next level. Their work ethic and managerial styles brought out the best qualities from their co-workers, developing naturally engaged and collaborative individuals, that they built into successful teams.

What is the importance of promoting Diversity & Inclusion?

DEI is essential to the sustainability of organisations, where the most valuable resource is its people. Promoting DEI fosters a sense of belonging amongst employees, facilitating better retention rates and providing employees with a safe and supportive environment in which they can all fully participate. We know from numerous studies that companies with more diversity are significantly more likely to outperform on profitability. Having a broad range of perspectives and experiences allows for similarly more broad ideas and innovation.

Where does the financial-services sector stand when it comes to gender equality?

There has been positive progress, but there is still a long way to go before equal access and equal representation. Whilst it is balanced at the entry level, female representation drops to less than one fifth in the C-suite* and around 5% for CEOs. Certain sectors and roles have significantly less women, such as fintech and trading. One way Nomura is addressing this is to proactively attract more women to these roles through education. Our Women in Trading Bootcamp introduces females to the world of trading, as well as tackling some of the misconceptions of working as a trader. (*Source: Statista 2024)

What can be done to close the gender-parity gap in financial services?

There is a multiplier effect where higher female representation in C-suite roles can positively impact the addition of women in leadership levels, meaning advancement is a crucial pillar to focus on. Asia and India, on average, lag North America, Western Europe and Oceania for senior women in finance. This is hindered in part by cultural expectations but also by less mature introduction of administrative measures. Hong Kong will finally mandate all listed firms to have at least one female board member from 2025. Holding firms accountable and having them demonstrated their HR processes encompass diversity can help encourage adoption of best practices.

What are your current Diversity & Inclusion initiatives at Nomura?

We have implemented inclusive hiring practices that include working with our recruiters to target diverse representation in the candidate pool. This is reinforced by unconscious bias and DEI training and gender diversity in our interview panels. We embed similar policies into our Advancement process. Our mentoring and sponsorship programs develop our female talent pipeline, to put them forward for opportunities. Beyond this, we have undertaken reviews of our benefits and infrastructure to be fair and equitable, such as our parental support program, inclusive benefits policies covering same sex partners and gender-neutral bathrooms. We support the evolving needs of employees at different life stages, such as through flexible work arrangements (FWA) and family care initiatives. I myself benefited from Nomura’s FWA program when my children were young, before returning full time to continue expanding my work role. Building on the culture of the firm, our four employee networks, Women In Nomura, Pride, Life & Families and Mental Health, bring people together around common areas of interest, to provide support and channels for feedback from the ground to help drive change.