On 12 March 2019, Moscow Exchange opened the trading day with a ceremony dedicated to gender equality and recognition of the contribution women make to business, politics and the economy. The global initiative Ring the Bell for Gender Equality was held this year for the fifth time around International Women’s Day (8 March), with 83 securities exchanges participating. Moscow Exchange rang the bell for the second year in a row.

Participants in the ceremony included Ring the Bell global coordinator Ulrika Johansson, Swedish Ambassador to the Russian Federation Peter Ericson, female business leaders from companies including ABB, Alrosa, Google, Inter RAO, Rusal and Sistema, as well as representatives of the financial community from Alfa Bank, Aton, Citibank, Gazprombank, Morgan Stanley, Rosbank, Sberbank, UniCredit Bank and VTB Capital.

UniCredit Bank was represented by Svetlana Zolotareva, Member of the Management Board, responsible for the Risk Division.

Svetlana Zolotareva said:

“UniCredit Bank, as a part of UniCredit Group, pays great attention to maintaining gender balance and diversity. Expansion of artificial intelligence, automation and robotics will affect the number of women working in traditional positions within the financial sector. Therefore, maintaining the balance will require significantly increase in share of women in current and future professions such as programming and data management."

The Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative brings together female leaders from business, the investment community and governments around the world. Organizers of the initiative include the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the IFC, the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative, UN Global Compact, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality (UN Women) and Women in ETFs.

The key objectives of the initiative are to raise awareness about the business case for women’s economic empowerment and the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.