By Nupur Anand
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase Chief Operating Officer Jenn Piepszak said the bank was making some changes to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and the language it uses to describe them in an effort to keep up with the market and changes in regulations, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
The bank was changing “equity” to “opportunity” and renaming it Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion, from DEI, the memo sent out earlier on Friday said.
“The “e” always meant equal opportunity to us, not equal outcomes, and we believe this more accurately reflects our ongoing approach to reach the most customers and clients to grow our business, create an inclusive workplace for our employees and increase access to opportunities,” Piepszak said in the memo.
The DOI organization will continue to report to Thelma Ferguson, she said.
Some of the diversity programs that were managed centrally by the DOI organization will now be integrated into different lines of business including human resources or corporate responsibility.
“This means some activities, councils or chapters may be consolidated to streamline our process and engagement strategy,” Piepszak said.
The bank also plans to reduce training on these topics.
In a regulatory filing last month, the largest U.S. lender said it expected to face criticism on some of its business practices, including DEI. In its latest annual filing it had only one mention of DEI, in contrast with six mentions in the previous years.
Several major U.S. and some European companies have dropped or altered their DEI policies following President Donald Trump’s executive order to curtail such programs in the U.S.
Even before Trump took office, big corporations were under increasing pressure from conservative groups to cut back or tweak their DEI policies aimed at boosting racial and ethnic representation in the workplace.
Last month, Citigroup said it will no longer require a diverse slate of candidates for job interviews and said it was changing the name of the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to “Talent Management and Engagement.”
Similarly, Goldman Sachs canceled a four-year-old policy of exclusively taking public companies with at least two diverse board members. It also dropped an entire section dedicated to “diversity and inclusion” from its annual filing.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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