Diversity and inclusion

We introduced the LME Women in Tech initiative in 2025. This is a dedicated campaign aimed at fostering gender diversity, inclusion, and empowerment within technology at the LME and LME Clear. Our strategy for increasing women's representation in technology is represented by three key actions: Recruit; Retain and Reward & Recognise.

The LME Women in Tech community also provides a platform for women across all levels to connect, share experiences, and support one another in navigating the unique challenges and opportunities of working in technology.

As part of our commitment to driving meaningful change, we’ve partnered with Coding Black Females and Code First Girls to expand access to learning, mentorship, and career development opportunities for women from all backgrounds. Together, we’re building a more inclusive and equitable future in tech.

If you would like to join our community or enquire about partnerships, please contact us at LMEwomenintech@lme.com.

For more information about current job opportunities, please visit our careers page.

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Attracting, nurturing and retaining female talent continue to be key priorities for us at LME Group.

When we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter in September 2020, LME Group had 31.9% representation of females across its senior management positions (SVP and MD level). Since then, we are proud to have progressed a number of initiatives detailed below, focused on fostering a gender-balanced talent pipeline and empowering more women to push for promotion. So far, the results of these initiatives are promising. Overall, the proportion of female staff as a percentage of the total workforce is up from 35% last year to 38% this year and the LME Executive Committee remains at 64% female representation this year. The LME Clear Executive Committee has increased representation to 36%.

With our overall gender balance across senior management at LME Group standing at 37.3% as of 6 September 2025, we have not met our target of 40% female representation in senior management by September 2025. There is, of course, still more to do and we remain committed to increasing female representation in senior management. We are heartened by the progress we’ve made on embedding our four-pillar strategy for gender equity, and expect to see these efforts bear fruit in the coming years. As such we are recommitting to our target and extending our deadline to September 2028.

Nearly half our workforce is in the IT function – a sector that has historically faced challenges with gender diversity. Recognising this, we identified IT as a key area for improvement. In June 2025, we launched the “LME Women in Tech” initiative, aligning with our LME IT strategic objective to “transform into a more diverse and world-leading engineering organisation.” This initiative has been implemented to increase the representation of women in technology roles and foster a more inclusive culture within IT teams.

Over the last 12 months we have continued to work on four key area to drive a more balanced representation of Women in senior management roles:

Attracting talent

Encouraging a diverse range of applicants through our inclusive recruitment process remains a cornerstone of our attraction strategy. We continue to build a strong and diverse junior talent pipeline though our apprenticeship programme, which is entering its fifth term – attracting candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. 83% of our female apprentices have converted to permanent roles after completing their apprenticeship, accounting for 77% of our apprentices who have moved into permanent roles. Where possible, we use a diverse, gender-balanced panel of interviewers to meet with prospective employees, to encourage diverse perspectives.

As part of the LME Women in Tech initiative, we will be partnering with two external organisations. These partnerships provide access to mentorship opportunities and allow us to advertise our tech vacancies on their job boards. In addition, we will be sponsoring a training programme, creating a direct pathway to hire female participants into our tech teams.

Retaining and developing talent

In 2024 we undertook a business reorganisation that has resulted in the LME Executive Committee having 64% female representation. Over the past 12 months female representation on the LME Clear Executive Committee has increased to 36%. Increasing senior female representation on the Executive Committees not only provides strong role models for more junior staff but also drives diversity of thought in key decision-making processes for the organisation.

We have also dedicated significant effort to refining our succession planning processes. A key component of this initiative involves identifying high-potential female candidates and creating tailored development plans to cultivate their leadership skills. This structured approach aims to enhance our diverse talent pipeline and ensure robust representation at the executive level.

We continue to be active members of the 30% Cross-Company Mentoring Programme, increasing our participation to 17 employees, with 8 mentors and 9 mentees enrolled in the programme in 2025. We have also enhanced our learning & development offering to provide more targeted training for females with a view to supporting their progression within the firm.

Education

Over the past 12 months, our employee networks have continued to raise awareness and drive engagement through events, speaking opportunities and internal communications. We have also introduced a Neonatal Care Leave policy which aims to support parents of newborns requiring neonatal care. This policy allows employees, up to 12 weeks of leave for every week their child is admitted to neonatal care within 28 days from birth. This leave can be taken up to 68 weeks after the child’s birth. Neonatal care is offered to both parents and is in addition to any other family leave, such as maternity, partner leave etc. Neonatal care leave will be paid at the Government’s statutory weekly rate.

Reporting and governance

We have continued to report progress towards our target on a quarterly basis to the executive committees for full transparency. In addition to our Women In Finance Charter submission, we also publish our Gender Pay Gap each year, which currently stands at 11.1% for the LME Group. Whilst we recognise there is still work to do, we continue to work closely with our colleagues and stakeholders to ensure we foster a culture of inclusion for all employees across the LME Group. We look forward to expanding on our current initiatives and progressing further towards our Charter target in the 12 months ahead.

30% Club cross-company mentoring

The LME is taking part in the 30% Club cross-company mentoring programme. This programme provides women with the opportunity to enter into a mentoring relationship with more senior individuals from outside of the LME, with the aim of providing additional personal development.

The 30% Club cross-company mentoring programme is the world’s largest cross-company mentoring programme, having supported more than 9,000 mentors and mentees since its inception in 2014.

Diversity and Inclusion Forum

The LME is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive and open environment for all of its employees. Our forum, sponsored by our LME Clear CEO, aims to drive forward initiatives to recruit, develop and engage employees from the greatest possible pool of available talent in order to ensure that our business can benefit from a cross-section of experience, ideas and knowledge. Our employee-led diversity and inclusion programme is aimed specifically at ensuring that all employees are able to thrive at the LME.

Internal networks

To ensure we are hearing everyone's voice and to make people aware of the different perspectives we have at the LME, we have a number of employee networks that are employee-led. These groups include:

• LGBTQ+ Network
• Gender Diversity Network
• Race and Ethnicity Network
• Social Mobility Champion Group
• Disability and Mental Health Champion Group

The LME’s apprenticeship programme is designed to introduce recent school-leavers to the fundamentals of working in the commodity-trading sector and within a recognised investment exchange (RIE). It encourages applications from under-represented groups in our industry and in doing so is building a diverse junior talent pipeline for the LME and the sector more broadly.

Our apprentices will gain experience across the operations function within the LME while also studying for a CISI investment operations certificate. We currently have four apprentices enrolled on the programme, who will potentially stay on at the LME in junior roles or may move on to a member firm at the end of their two-year LME placement.

If you are interested in finding out more about our apprenticeship programme and how to apply, please contact our Resourcing team at recruitment@lme.com.

Since 2018, the LME has published its Gender Pay Gap Report, and we are pleased to do so, as we believe that the transparency created through gender pay gap reporting is a critical tool in understanding, managing and addressing perpetuating gender equality issues.

We are also voluntarily reporting the figures for LME Group (the LME and its clearing house, LME Clear), which aligns with our commitment to transparency in our efforts to bring greater gender equality to our business and the wider industry.

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 - published April 2026 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 - published April 2024 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2022 - published April 2023 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 - published April 2022 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 - published April 2021 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2019 - published March 2020 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2018 - published April 2019 (PDF)

LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2017 - published March 2018 (PDF)