On May 12, the House Financial Services Subcommittees on Oversight and Investigations and on Housing and Community Opportunity held a joint hearing, “Minorities and Women in Financial Regulatory Reform: The Need for Increasing Participation and Opportunities for Qualified Persons and Businesses.”
Ms. Orice Williams-Brown, director of Financial Markets and Community Investment at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Employer Information Report (EEO-1) “data indicate that from 1993 through 2008 overall workforce diversity in management positions within the financial services industry did not change substantially, and revised EEO-1 data that EEOC began to report in 2008 indicates that diversity in senior management positions is limited. As described in our June 2006 report, EEO-1 data show that management-level representation by minority women and men increased from 11.1 percent to 15.5 percent from 1993 through 2004. The revised EEO-1 data for the period 2005 through 2008 indicate that overall minority representation at the management level increased from 15.5 to 17.4 percent…While the EEO-1 data shows some increase in overall diversity in management levels from 1993 through 2008, in 2008 EEOC also began to report revised EEO-1 data for a new category specifically focused on senior-level executives and managers. The revised data indicate that the earlier data overstated the representation of women and minorities among senior executives. Specifically, the revised data indicate that minorities accounted for about 10 percent of all senior management positions in the financial services industry in 2008 while the broader measure was 17.4 percent. The revised data also indicate that white men held about 64 percent of senior management positions in 2008 while African Americans held 2.8 percent, Hispanics 3.0 percent, and Asians 3.5 percent.”
Pamela Bethel, a partner at O’Riordan Bethel Law Firm, LLP, testified on behalf of the National Association of Minority- and Women-Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF) and discussed the lack of federal procurement opportunities for women-owned small businesses. She cited the legislative and regulatory history of the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Procurement Program, and offered a provision in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173) that establishes the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion as a solution: “H.R. 4173, section 1801 (passed by the House and now pending with the Senate) requires [the Department of] Treasury to establish an ‘Office of Minority and Women Inclusion’ that would ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the inclusion and utilization of minorities and women, and minority- and women-owned businesses in all procurements issued by the financial regulatory agencies, as well as contracts issued by commercial concerns that relate to any assisted institution.”
Thomas “Danny” Boston, a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and CEO of EuQuaint, echoed Ms. Bethel’s call to enact H.R. 4173, saying “The proposed ‘Office of Minority and Women Inclusion’ as reflected in H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, can be an effective and creative way to help level the playing field.” He added, “I would like to share a perspective that too often is missing from the national debate on minority businesses. Specifically, I would like to focus on the value proposition to the American economy of supporting minority- and women-owned businesses. I will not minimize the importance of leveling the playing field by providing remedies for past and present discriminatory treatment of minority and women business owners. Rather, I argue that, even if business disparities did not exist, America still has a compelling economic rationale for supporting the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.”
Vincent Wimbish, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers; Carlos Loumiet, a partner at Hunton & Williams LLP and president of the New America Alliance, on behalf of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Orim Graves, executive director of the National Association of Securities Professionals; and Alexander Chapparo, president of the Chapparo Group and chair of the National Hispanic Association of Hispanic Real Estate, also testified.
