Moral suasion, not quotas, is needed to bring women on board – Bank of Valletta chief

Charles Borg, CEO of Bank of Valletta, has argued against the imposition of mandatory quotas that the European Union wants to impose by 2020 by forcing publicly-listed companies - like BOV - to have 40% of their boards of directors composed of women.

The initiative, by the EU's justice commissioner Viviane Reding, will meet opposition from the UK and Malta, apart from some other eight member states.

But Borg - whose bank's nine-man board has no women - acknowledges that it is in the interest of companies to increase female participation at executive level.

"First of all it is important to clarify that, even as a CEO, I have no say over who gets appointed to boards or not. But female representation at board level does remain low."

Borg points out that the opposite is true at lower employment levels.

"If you look at our total workforce, the majority of employees are in fact women. But not at executive level, where women are a small minority."

Asked to account for this discrepancy, Borg explains that the main reason is that women tend to take on other commitments, such as family.

"It is certainly not because of any issue of competence. In fact, in cases where women do return to the workplace after those commitments are over, they tend to be very dedicated and very competent..."

Borg admits that many boards, including but not limited to that of BOV, would benefit from greater female participation.

"From my experience it's much better to have a mix of genders represented on boards - in both public and private sectors. When there is female participation there will always be a different perspective on issues. This doesn't mean that the female perspective will automatically be 'better' than a male perspective; but it's important to have different viewpoints. It adds value to the discussion..."

However, he insists that quotas are not the ideal solution.

"I disagree with the imposition of a quota, say 40%... failing which companies will be fined. I would argue instead for 'moral suasion': there are ways of offering incentives and encouragement for companies to increase female participation without resorting to legal imposition and fines."