HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter
The HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter (the Charter) is a commitment by signatory firms to work together to build a more balanced and fair financial services industry. Credit Services Association Limited (CSA) supports this initiative. We recognise that a balanced workforce is good for both our activities as a trade body and our subsidiary’s activities as a training provider. We therefore strive to achieve this balance and to encourage a diverse and inclusive culture.
When we signed up to the Charter in December 2019, we had 36% female representation in the senior management of CSA itself and 0% female representation in the senior management of our wholly owned subsidiary, CSA (Services) Ltd. We set a Charter target of achieving 50% for CSA and 30% for CSA (Services) Ltd by the end of 2022.
CSA achieved its target of 50% in March 2022 (ahead of the deadline) and CSA (Services) Ltd exceeded its original target of 30% in March 2021 (again ahead of target) when the female representation rose to 40%.
When we set our original Charter target for CSA, we recognised that our progress would depend on the democratic elections required to appoint new board directors from our membership and that our ability to influence gender balance in these circumstances would therefore be limited.
We ended the 2025 calendar year with female representation in senior management of CSA at 45%, which was just slightly below our target of re-attaining a 50% overall representation by the end of December 2025. This was primarily due to the numbers of elected directors on the board over which we have very little control other than by encouraging all eligible candidates to stand for election regardless of gender. We are a very small organisation so any small changes to the number of women either appointed to our boards or employed by CSA has the potential significantly to affect our Charter target.
For CSA (Services) Ltd, female representation stood at 44% which exceeded our target of 30% by the target date of 31 December 2025.
Although we narrowly missed achieving both targets in 2025, we decided to raise our targets beyond 31st December 2025, with an aspiration of achieving female representation of 50% in both overall senior management and on CSA (Services) Ltd board by 31st December 2028.
Current position and expectations for the coming year
Our annual board elections took place in February 2026, and this saw two women appointed into four of the available CSA board positions. We have also appointed a female Director of Finance and Operations to the CSA Senior Management team and diversified the composition of the CSA (Services) Ltd board, following the new appointments.
As at 30 September 2026, women represented 57% of the senior management team (including board members), exceeding our 2028 target of 50%.
For CSA (Services) Ltd, female representation now stands at 67%, which is significantly higher than the newly revised target of achieving 50% female representation by 2028.
The CSA remains committed to working towards and maintaining our targets within the remit of our democratic election processes.
Chris Leslie is the member of the board of directors of CSA who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion within CSA. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the CSA.
September 2026.