A finance firm has urged the financial services sector to introduce compulsory flexible working hours to attract and retain more women.

Sturgeon Ventures said mandatory flexi-time would help working mums and "open the floodgates" to more women working in financial services, as the FCA today published targets for the Government’s Women in Finance Charter.

This morning, the FCA pledged to ensure 45% of its senior leadership team are women by 2020, rising to 50% by 2025.

The Treasury revealed that 60 firms have committed to having at least 30% of women in senior roles by 2021. This includes 15 banks and 13 leading insurers who together employ over 375,000 people in the UK.

Seonaid Mackenzie, managing partner at Sturgeon, said: “There are many women all across the UK with a tremendous amount of experience and who could re-enter the financial services industry but can’t because of the insurmountable difficulties of juggling family care with inflexible nine to five working hours.

“Financial services start-ups could benefit enormously by tapping into this overlooked workforce and the government should be actively encouraging this by offering them tax-breaks, especially for start up financial services companies appointing women to 50% or more of their senior management roles. Such moves would add substantial dynamism to the UK financial services industry, which is especially relevant in the wake of the Brexit vote.

“At Sturgeon we firmly believe that diversity amongst our team improves innovation, decision-making and the way we deliver our services. Women today represent 80% of our workforce and we aim to always maintain 50% in senior management in accordance with our Charter pledges.”

Sturgeon was among the first signatories to the Treasury’s Charter.

Major banks including HSBC UK, Santander, RBS and Lloyds have published “ground-breaking gender strategies, committing them to ambitious targets for the number of women they employ in senior roles”.

Firms agreed earlier this year to publish progress on gender balance annually as part of the Charter and today’s publications set record targets for female representation at the highest levels.

Thirteen organisations, including Virgin Money, the Financial Conduct Authority and Legal and General, are aiming for complete gender parity in senior roles - a 50/50 split.

As part of the charter, established by HM Treasury, firms also agreed to make an individual executive responsible for its commitments and as a result, today 20 firms have named their CEO as the senior executive accountable for progress against their targets.

The firms who have published their strategies today employ over half a million people and span across the breadth of the financial services sector, from FinTech firms to asset managers. Over half are also headquartered outside of London, with a particularly strong presence in Scotland.

The FCA has published its targets for the charter, and committed to further goals for Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic for 2020 and 2025.

Andrew Bailey, CEO of the FCA, said: “Every day we make judgements and decisions that impact almost everyone in the UK so it’s vital that our people reflect the society that we serve.”

Prime Minister Theresa May said: “The UK is a world-leader in financial services, but the sector could do even better if it made the most of many talented women who work in finance. Too few women get to the top and many don’t progress as quickly as they should or they leave the sector completely.

“So it is good news that so many firms have signed the Women in Finance Charter and are now dedicating themselves to tackling gender inequality. They recognise the business case for doing so and with ambitious targets to deepen the female talent pool, these firms are leading the way.”