Canada’s government announced on Friday that it would compel banks, insurance companies and other financial firms to disclose the number of women and minorities on their boards and in senior management positions. Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions would be responsible for enforcing the regulations, requiring diversity information to be released at the same time as the notice of annual meeting is sent out.

This development at the national level stands in stark contrast to the very public retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the United States by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Canadian regulations aim to promote hiring of women, visible minorities, Indigenous people, and the disabled in senior ranks, the announcement said.

“Investors lack transparent and standardized information on the representation of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities in senior leadership positions,” the notice in the Canada Gazette read. “Diversity is fundamental to creating a thriving and successful financial sector that reflects Canadian values.”

A finance ministry spokesperson said on Monday the rules are proposed, require consultation and are not yet in force.

New rules, older mandates

The new rules, which will affect 16 financial institutions, are similar to those already implemented for other federally regulated companies, such as telecommunications providers, airlines and railways. And they would require financial institutions to make diversity disclosures annually to investors.

Most provincial securities regulators in Canada already require publicly listed companies to disclose gender diversity on their boards and management teams. According to government data, 59% of corporate boards in Canada had at least one woman member while 27% had a member of a visible minority in 2023.

Women held 29% of all senior management positions and visible minorities held 13%.

DEI in the USA

Since taking office on January 20, President Trump has issued a series of executive orders aimed at scrapping DEI initiatives across the US federal government and the private sector.

Some of the largest businesses in the country, including Walt Disney, Walmart, and McDonald’s, have reportedly responded to these efforts by changing their DEI programs and removing references to them in their annual reports.

US banks are scaling back their public support for diversity and inclusion to avoid ending up in the crosshairs of a legal landscape increasingly hostile toward it. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are removing or watering down public language around efforts to promote or support diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, according to sources speaking to the WSJ.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America have also started to pore over their language, some of those sources said. And Goldman Sachs is ending its policy that mandated companies have a diverse board for the bank to take them public.

The rule, first implemented in 2020, had said the bank would only underwrite the initial public offerings for companies in the US and Western Europe if they had two diverse board members, with one of those being a woman.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were preparing to comply with Trump’s executive order that sought to ban DEI programs as both receive government contracts, Bloomberg reported.

Coca-Cola’s changes will likely be disclosed in future SEC filings, according to the report, and PepsiCo’s latest filing removed references to its “diverse workforce” and DEI.

But not all large US businesses are throwing in the DEI towel.

Delta Airlines said it remains committed to DEI on a January 10 earnings call. Peter Carter, the company’s executive vice president for external affairs, told a reporter the company is not reevaluating DEI or sustainability policies because “they are actually critical to our business,” stating DEI is “about talent and that’s been our focus.”

And Costco has refused to back down from its DEI policies. The company’s shareholders overwhelmingly voted (98%) to reject a proposal that would have obligated the company to review the potential risks of maintaining its DEI initiatives.