The number of women in senior positions within UK banks has increased over the last 20 years, but little progress has been made on improving age and nationality diversity.

These were the findings of new research published by the Bank of England, following a study of all regulated institutions between 2001 and 2020.

According to the data, only 9% of the “authorised pool” of individuals in 2001 were female; this has since risen to 20.1% in 2020, but remains well short of 50%.

The authors also