New actions we’re taking to address systemic racism

Over the past several weeks, our senior leaders and I have been reflecting on the issues of wide-spread systemic racism, intolerance and discrimination in our society. We’ve also been listening to the outpouring of messages from colleagues across RBC who’ve told us we can and must do better to address issues of systemic bias within our organization to truly strengthen our culture of inclusion.

Systemic racism and bias has disproportionately set back Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) in our communities for far too long. This reality has significantly impacted the ability of these groups to compete equally in opportunities for economic and social advancement.

To live our Purpose, we simply can’t move on without addressing this problem. That’s why today we’re announcing these actions to drive meaningful change:

Enabling Economic Growth and Wealth Creation

The Financial Services industry plays an important role in enabling economic mobility and prosperity, and small businesses are the engine of that growth.

Alongside our existing commitments to Indigenous communities, we’re committing $100 million over five years in small business loans to Black entrepreneurs. As part of that commitment, we’ll also establish a program to bring business, marketing, digital experts and community leaders together to share ideas and best practices to advance growth for Black owned businesses.

Investing in the Future

Ensuring the leaders of tomorrow have equal opportunity today is critical to building more inclusive companies and communities that can achieve their greatest potential.

We’re committing to invest $50 million from now up to 2025 through RBC Future Launch to create meaningful and transformative pathways to prosperity for 25,000 BIPOC youth with investments in areas such as skills development and mentoring.

Internally, we’re committing 40% of all summer opportunities to BIPOC youth, with a specific focus on recruiting from Black and Indigenous communities, to bring broader perspectives to our teams and create career opportunities for a more diverse group of students. We will also establish and measure annual internship and new hire goals for Black and Indigenous talent in Canada, the US, and the UK as applicable beginning in 2021.

Redefining Inclusive Leadership

The only way we can truly represent the communities we serve and harness the potential of our diversity is to grow the number of BIPOC leaders across our bank.

We’re starting with enhancing our existing company-wide Unconscious Bias training, and making anti-racism and anti-bias training mandatory for all employees.

We’re increasing our staffing goals for BIPOC executives from 20% to 30% with a focus on increasing Black and Indigenous representation to accelerate the diversity of our leadership pipeline for senior executive roles. We will also double our investment in Ignite, a leadership program focused on driving the development of BIPOC talent, to complement other experience-based development opportunities.

To ensure these commitments are realized, we’re including diversity and inclusion objectives in the performance management goals of all people leaders, and will further expand our annual reporting beginning in 2021 to drive even more transparency on our BIPOC efforts, including enhancing our pay equity reporting to encompass racial and ethnic pay equity analysis.

I want to stress this is not a one-time announcement. Our response is part of an ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion – to redefine inclusive leadership at our bank, and support economic growth and wealth creation for BIPOC youth and communities.

Over the coming months, we will continue to listen, take feedback and adjust our response. Please continue to speak up for inclusion, especially if you see new opportunities or actions we should be considering. 

As I’ve expressed in previous notes, you have my continued commitment to action on this front. We know we can do better to drive meaningful change at RBC and inspire meaningful progress in our communities. And we will.