Global provider of financial markets data and infrastructure, Refinitiv, has announced the 2019 Top 100 most diverse and inclusive organizations worldwide as ranked by its Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Index.

Industries leading this year’s D&I Index Top 100 are pharmaceutical firms with a total of 13, followed by banking, investment services & insurance with 11, telecommunications services with 9, and personal and household products & services with 7.  The US leads the list with 25 firms followed by the UK with 10 and Australia with 9.  

Accenture, Diageo, Royal Bank of Canada lead the top five list followed by Natura Cosmeticos and BlackRock.

The index ratings are informed by Refinitiv’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data, designed to measure the relative performance of more than 7,000 companies representing 70 percent of global market cap across 400+ ESG data points, and provide clients with critical and differentiated insight.  

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“Our Diversity and Inclusion Index, now in its fourth year, recognizes the companies who are leading the way in embedding diversity and inclusion into their business strategy and practices,” said Elena Philipova, global head of ESG at Refinitiv.

Debra Walton, Chief Revenue Officer at Refinitiv said, "D&I Index continues to serve as key driver for investors and analysts seeking to identify the companies that are getting this right, and helping them to make investment decisions that align with their values and the bottom line.”

Larry Tabb, founder & research chairman at TABB Group said: “Diversity as a critical pillar of good governance is being increasingly used to manage investment selection. Those companies that have strong ESG aspects to their business tend to attract and retain employees and clients longer, which reduces turnover, costs and is very beneficial to the bottom line.”

Virginie O'Shea, research director at Aite Group said the continued industry interest in the D&I index reflects the increased investor appetite to invest in ESG related areas and the changes that are happening across all sectors of the capital markets.

"Some of the largest asset managers in the world have this year become much more active in engaging in shareholder voting on the issue of improving diversity and even the world’s oldest private banks have taken to the industry stage to discuss their investment strategies around ESG,” she said.

The D&I Index utilises innovative analytics to rate and score companies across 4 main pillars: Diversity, Inclusion, People Development and Controversies. Only companies with scores across all four pillars are assigned an overall score (the average of the pillar scores). The top 100 ranked companies with the best overall scores are selected for the Index.

The complete list of the Top 100 Most Diverse and Inclusive Organisations Globally can be accessed here

(Writing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@refinitiv.com, editing by Seban Scaria)

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