Bridging lender Hope Capital has signed the Women in Finance Charter, which commits to help make financial services a more balanced and fair industry to work in.

Hope Capital recently made extra female appointments to its senior management team and so has already exceeded its own targets by having 50% of its board comprising females, while 75% of its staff are female.

The Charter commits companies to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to deliver against gender diversity targets, but Hope Capital is going further and commits to equal pay for similar roles across the organisation.

CEO Jonathan Sealey has taken responsibility for making sure the lender hits its targets. He said: “We set the expectation of signing up to the Women in Finance Charter some time ago within Hope Capital. Where we have differed from other financial companies is that we wanted to have already hit our targets before we signed up, as actions speak louder than words.

“We have spent the last few months working towards this and, as a result, we are proud of the fact that we already have an equal split of men and women on our senior management team and 75% of our staff are female, including underwriters, case writers and BDMs. Our target now is to maintain the level that we have achieved already.”

Laura Carr, head of un derwriting, who is now part of the senior management team, added: “Hope Capital has been committed to gender diversity since well before the Women in Finance Charter came into being. The fact that we have 50% women in senior management and over 75% women overall is testament to that.

“This latest commitment to the Charter is the next logical step to what is a long-term commitment.”