HSBC has pledged to at least double the number of black staff across its upper ranks, but has admitted it does not know the exact number of minority ethnic individuals in senior positions across the business. In an internal memo to staff, HSBC’s chief executive, Noel Quinn, admitted that the bank’s failure to collect and publish ethnicity data had created a “feeling of mistrust” among black colleagues, who are concerned that the bank had been “relatively silent” on issues affecting the black community. Quinn said he wanted to assure colleagues that HSBC would act. “The Black Lives Matter movement has rightly created more urgent demand for action,” Quinn said. “These are the initial steps that we as a group will take in response.” A steering committee made up of black leaders and staff from different ethnic backgrounds is to oversee a newly created global ethnicity inclusion programme. The bank has also pledged to “at least double” the number of black people in director-level positions, which includes the executive team, by 2025. However, a spokeswoman for HSBC said the bank did not have statistics confirming the current number of black staff in director-level positions. Quinn’s memo said a “diversity data enhancement programme” was under way as part of plans to improve the reporting and transparency of ethnicity data. Those figures will be released for the first time alongside its annual report in 2021. The London-headquartered lender said it would work with headhunters to “engage” black and ethnically diverse candidates for leadership roles and improve their representation on shortlists in mid-career roles. Quinn said the bank would update its recruitment processes to reduce potential bias and “enhance” hiring strategies for its graduate programmes. “Saying the right words is easy. Doing the right thing is harder. I want us to be judged by the concrete, sustainable actions we take to be a more diverse and inclusive bank,” Quinn said. HSBC’s announcement comes a week after Lloyds Banking Group said it would increase the number of black staff in senior roles from 0.6% to at least 3% over the next four years. It will mean recruiting about 168 more black staff into senior roles by 2024. Lloyds – which currently employs 40 black members of staff across its 7,000-strong management team – will also publish its first ethnicity pay gap report later this year and include at least one candidate from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background on every executive director shortlist.