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Report on Diversity at OMWI Agencies

Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act contains a provision creating an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) at various agencies to monitor the diversity efforts of the agencies, the regulated entities and agency contractors. In a new report on workforce diversity at the 20 federal financial regulatory agencies subject to Dodd/Frank Section 342 (OMWI), a West Coast based NGO, the Greenlining Coalition, notes that "there is considerable variation amongst the financial regulatory agencies in workforce diversity. Our tiered analysis illustrates that some agencies have strong diversity records, while others still have considerable room for improvement."

Greenlining appears to be working from our ratings of OMWI Offices, released in September, 2011. We agree with their assessment and are glad that they have validated the work we did six months ago.....

The Report goes on to note that

"..some agencies have been more successful than others at recruiting and retaining employees from certain racial and ethnic minority groups." Greenlining also identified two trends:

"Lack of racial diversity in executive management and a significant underrepresentation of Latinos, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans..in the executive management, mid-level management, and professional categories."

While we appreciate Greenlining's focus on workforce diversity at the covered agencies, we know that the biggest issue remains diversity at financial institutions covered by the OMWI Offices.

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