Note sent to CEO and CFO of a renowned MNC Bank :
Dear Mr A and Ms B,
This is not going to be about a USD $500 million deal. It is not about anything glorious or celebratory.
It is about a subject our industry still finds uncomfortable to discuss: sexual harassment, the women who suffer in silence, the careers that are quietly damaged, and the families affected when men in positions of power are allowed to behave this way.
Business will always be the priority. But that should never mean losing sight of the people behind it.
I respectfully ask the CEO of Bank A: do you really want someone who reaches out to young women on LinkedIn, comments on their eyeliner and dressing sense, tells them they are a ‘good soul’, tells them how unhappy a 50+ year old man is in his marriage, wants to book a hotel with women he barely knows, and talks about them getting a professional certification so they can be hired into his team?
And why are you taking on such candidates? Is it because they have come through a senior reference?
These men target younger women who may not have the same advantages or networks in the industry. They sexually harass them, and when a woman stands up for herself, which many Millennials and Gen Zs are increasingly willing to do because their tolerance for this behaviour is far lower than previous generations, it is the woman who is penalised while the man continues to thrive, with seemingly no impact on his career.
Why does speaking up become a liability for a woman? The moment she reports what happened, she is perceived as difficult, and suddenly there is apprehension about hiring her again.
If a woman is sexually harassed at work (physical violation), what exactly is she supposed to do? Stay silent and protect her career? Speak up and risk being labelled difficult and jeopardise her career? First thing these men come after is her reputation.
For too long, we have treated this as a taboo and an embarrassment. Instead of asking, ‘Oh, why is she jeopardising her career by putting herself out there?’, why can’t there be a human element?
I won’t name the individuals. But I have seen men in this industry do things that should have ended their careers, including forging client signatures and taking pass-backs from bonus, and yet they continued to rise. They had something many women who speak up do not: the protection of the BOYS network.
In my own case, I am still seeing the impact this has had on my career and on how my career is viewed. Even Bank A turned me down when I approached them for a role, labelling me a ‘reputational risk’.
In which case, please help me understand how many of your private bankers, in their first year, generated a substantial amount of pure cash AUM USD xxx without any power broker or any support, and without the advantage of additional leverage.
At the peak of everything I was fighting, including standing up for my rights and speaking up so that other women would not have to endure what I went through, that’s the show I pulled off.
I also remember discovering that I had inadvertently used my corporate credit card to pay for a taxi to return to my residence. It was less than $15. Nobody had flagged it. I contacted finance myself, explained the error and reimbursed the bank instantly.
That is the standard I have held myself to throughout my career. And yet today, I am struggling with the reality that the industry is still controlled by the boys’ network, where a woman can do everything right, deliver the numbers and maintain her integrity, yet the very qualities that should command respect in a man can make a woman’s career considerably more difficult when she refuses to stay silent.
Leadership cannot only be about the numbers. It also means taking responsibility for the culture that exists around those numbers. So what are leaders actually doing about behaviour like this? What are you changing, beyond policies and statements or diplomatic/play safe investigation responses to ensure that women can actually speak-up without damaging their careers? What are you doing to make sure that seniority or a powerful network does not become a shield from accountability?
If the argument is that these men have families to support, then what about the women affected by their actions? Don’t they have families to support too? Don’t they have careers, dreams and futures that matter just as much.
I am also somebody’s daughter.
I did not want to be sexually harassed at work.
It is 2026. A woman should not have to choose between protecting her dignity and protecting her career.
I am referring my case, and what I have been subjected to in the industry, to the regulators in all the jurisdictions where these financial institutions operate. I will pursue this until the men responsible for such behaviour are held accountable for their actions, and until a woman like me, who suffered in the process and came forward to stand up for her rights, is no longer penalised for something that was not her fault to start with.