Opening the conference in London yesterday, Gavin Isle, head of UK coverage for Barclays Corporate Banking discussed the gender pay gap at Barclays, insisting that it was “absolutely a concern” for the company.

“The gender pay gap is 48% at Barclays. It’s borne out of having female employees at a lower grade”, he said. Isle added that the bank was taking action to address the move, including a specialist graduate programme.

“We need more senior leadership that is a reflection of the society we have”, he said.

Fiona Hathorn, managing director of Women on Boards also highlighted the benefits of having a diverse team. “Creativity and different ideas tend to come from people that don’t look like you. We all recruit in our own image but you need systems in place to ensure merit based recruitment,” she said.

“You can’t blame the company for the lack of women in senior positions, blame society,” Hathorn added. “But companies can be a big part of the change”.