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Press release
30 Sep 2025
European financial services firms increase sustainability-focused board appointments amid ongoing ESG policy debate
ESG skills in demand: A third (33%) of board members appointed to European financial services firms in the past year brought sustainability expertise, raising the percentage of banks, insurers and asset managers with this skill set at board level to 93%, up from 82% twelve months prior.
But C-suite still most coveted attribute: 65% of European financial services board appointees over the past year brought prior C-suite experience.
Country focus: Italian financial firms appointed the most board members with sustainability experience in the past twelve months, further bolstering this skill on their boards, followed by firms in France and the UK.
The vast majority (93%) of European financial services boards now include at least one director with sustainability expertise — up from 82% in June 2024 — and 58% of financial services boards include two or more directors with this skill set.
The latest EY European Financial Services Boardroom Monitor – which charts the profile, experience and skill sets of board directors across the MSCI Europe Financials Index – finds that 33% of board appointments in the year to June 2025 brought some form of sustainability expertise, compared to 23% in the twelve-month period prior. This has resulted in a two-percentage-point increase in the overall number of directors with sustainability experience, from 17% to 19% of the total population of financial services board directors over the last year.
Although C-suite experience continues to be the most in-demand attribute for new financial services board directors — 65% of appointees in the last year have C-suite experience —sustainability expertise is now one of the most in-demand skill sets.
A third (33%) of appointees over the last year (June 2024 to June 2025) brought finance experience, such as a CFO or financial controller role, while 28% have backgrounds in audit or accountancy. Thirty-five percent of newly appointed board members in the same time period brought technology expertise, raising the overall director population with these skills to 25% (from 23% the year prior) — perhaps as financial services firms look to get to grips with generative artificial intelligence and ongoing tech transformation.
Looking through a gender lens, of the new appointees in the year to June 2025 with sustainability experience, 56% were women and 44% were men, resulting in a gender balance of the total director population now with sustainability experience of 52% female, 48% male. For new appointees in the year to June 2025 with C-suite experience, 34% were women and 66% were men, resulting in a one-percentage-point decline in the overall proportion of women with C-suite experience over the last year (now sitting at 63% female to 37% male). Of the new appointees in the year to June 2025 with tech experience, 45% were women and 55% men, resulting in an overall gender split now of the total director population with sustainability experience of 46% female, 54% male.
Board-level sustainability expertise is now a prudential expectation, not a ‘nice to have’. Under CRD VI and the EBA’s guidelines, banks must embed ESG considerations into strategy, governance, risk management and ICAAP, and starting next year they should put in place prudential transition plans. In Romania’s top five banks, we see boards actively building this capability in a measured way: directors are pursuing targeted training and drawing on specialist advisory support, and three out of the top five have established sustainability committees reporting to the management board with defined responsibilities and having extensive sustainability expertise.
Banks and insurers have strongest appetite for ESG board expertise
Sustainability expertise has become increasingly represented across all types of financial services boards. The latest EY Boardroom Monitor data finds that 89% (79% this time a year ago) of wealth and asset management boards have at least one director with sustainability experience, rising to 93% (86% this time a year ago) for banking boards and 96% (76% this time a year ago) for insurance boards.
In terms of new appointments between June 2024 and June 2025, European banks have added sustainability expertise to their boards at a faster rate than insurance and asset management peers in the last year. Forty-one per cent of all new board directors to European banks brought sustainability experience in the year to June 2025 (21% this time a year ago), compared to 29% (27% this time a year ago) at insurance firms and 19% (24% this time a year ago) at wealth and asset management companies.
Sustainability skills grew particularly in Italian, French and UK boards
Italy, France and the UK led Europe in sustainability appointments over the past year, accounting for 27%, 13% and 13% of new directors with this experience, respectively. The UK led the continent for new appointments with C-suite experience, accounting for 20% of appointments in the year to June 2025, followed by France (13%) and Italy (11%). The UK also led on new appointees with technology experience, accounting for 24% of all technology appointments in the period, followed by France and Italy, each with 13%, respectively.
Quick data overview as of 30 June 2025
Total number of firms tracked across Europe: 89
Total number of European board directors monitored: 1,093
Total number of female board directors monitored: 464
Total number of male board directors monitored: 629
Total number of European board director exits in 2025: 124
Total number of new European board directors in 2025: 159
Notes to editors:
This is the seventh launch of the EY European Financial Services Boardroom Monitor, and data is current to 30 June 2025, representing data up to the end of H1 2025.
Sustainability experience is defined as professional experience in a business or charity focused on having a positive impact on environmental or social factors as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or a sustainability-focused role within a company.
Technology experience covers professional experience across emerging tech (including AI), IT, cyber security, FinTech and BigTech.
About the EY Boardroom Monitor
The EY Financial Services European Boardroom Monitor tracks the experience, background, and skill sets of board members across a defined universe of financial services firms to create a broad picture of the gaps in expertise and possible pressure points within the listed European financial services markets.
The EY Financial Services European Boardroom Monitor tracks and analyses data across a wide range of factors, including gender and age, as well as professional experience and skills. It does not track the race and ethnicity of board members, as there is no standardized format for directors to disclose against
The EY Financial Services European Boardroom Monitor is comprised of disclosable, publicly available data on board appointments at listed banks, wealth and asset managers, FinTechs and insurers across the UK, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, using the MSCI European Financials Index as the core universe.