The vast majority (93 percent) of European financial services boards now include at least one director with sustainability expertise — up from 82 percent in June 2024 — and 58 percent 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 percent of board appointments in the year to June 2025 brought some form of sustainability expertise, compared to 23 percent 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 percent to 19 percent 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 percent 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 percent) of appointees over the last year (June 2024 to June 2025) brought finance experience, such as a CFO or financial controller role, while 28 percent 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 percent (from 23 percent 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 percent were women and 44 percent were men, resulting in a gender balance of the total director population now with sustainability experience of 52 percent female, 48 percent male. For new appointees in the year to June 2025 with C-suite experience, 34 percent were women and 66 percent 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 percent female to 37 percent male). Of the new appointees in the year to June 2025 with tech experience, 45 percent were women and 55 percent men, resulting in an overall gender split now of the total director population with sustainability experience of 46 percent female, 54 percent male.
Răzvan Pîrnac, Partner, Financial Services Risk Management, EY România: “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 percent (79 percent this time a year ago) of wealth and asset management boards have at least one director with sustainability experience, rising to 93 percent (86 percent this time a year ago) for banking boards and 96 percent (76 percent 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 percent this time a year ago), compared to 29 percent (27 percent this time a year ago) at insurance firms and 19 percent (24 percent 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 percent, 13 percent and 13 percent of new directors with this experience, respectively. The UK led the continent for new appointments with C-suite experience, accounting for 20 percent of appointments in the year to June 2025, followed by France (13 percent) and Italy (11 percent). The UK also led on new appointees with technology experience, accounting for 24 percent of all technology appointments in the period, followed by France and Italy, each with 13 percent, respectively.
