During the same period, the number of female CEOs at Germany’s top 200 companies based on revenue grew, highlighting a long-standing gap that still grips the banking sector.

Germany’s new government has vowed to narrow its gender pay gap, which is one of the widest in the EU and most stark in the finance sector of the bloc’s biggest economy.

Carola von Schmettow, one of Germany’s most prominent female bankers, retired last year as head of HSBC in Germany and was replaced by a man.

While female representation on bank management boards and in top leadership roles grew to 13.2% from 10.5% in 2020, it lagged 15% representation across industries, the DIW report said.

DIW has said in the past that a reason for this discrepancy is that people in the financial sector, more so than in other industries, are disproportionately rewarded for working extremely long and inflexible hours, which benefits men.

Calls for action for greater gender balance from politicians and investors have grown, with critics saying that new policies to diversify boards in Germany have fallen short.