Gay City workers are being 'held back by old-fashioned attitudes'

A top City boss claims “shockingly” old-fashioned attitudes towards gay staff are holding back the financial services industry.

Simon Collins, senior partner at global accountancy group KPMG, said staff not free to “be themselves” cannot work as comfortably and creatively with clients as they should. “We have to mirror and lead our clients — not follow some decades behind,” he said, revealing that even in confidential surveys, only a third of KPMG’s 12,000 staff were prepared to reveal their sexual orientation.

He spoke at the launch of a new advocacy group, called Out on the Street, at law firm Clifford Chance, attended by senior executives from banks including Credit Suisse, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Barclays.

Employment experts said that while few workplaces are openly hostile to gay employees, there are many where it is difficult for them to be open. John Haley, chief executive of global professional services company Towers Watson, said: “There’s sort of a stage of benign neglect.”

Mr Collins added that though he is straight, he has some insight into gay workers’ experience. “I spent a lot of the early part of my career thinking about whether [being Jewish] mattered and whether I should mention it to people,” he said. “It’s been quite a shock to imagine people are still feeling the way I was 30 years ago, and worse.”

Lord Browne of Madingley, former BP chief executive, said there were no openly gay bosses in FTSE-100 Index firms, adding: “I wish I’d been brave enough to come out right at the start of my tenure as chief executive of BP. I didn’t do it and I regret it to this day.”

The head of BP’s global commodities trading business described how being a gay senior executive can be awkward when confronted with junior staff who are not similarly open. Paul Reed said: “I’m constantly surprised when I’m on the trading floor meeting young traders and there’s a sudden shock when they realise they’ve met me somewhere else ... They give me a little signal as if to say: ‘I’m not “out” at work, you know.’ I don’t want traders hiding half of their brain. I want their entire brains focused on making me lots of money.”