Britain’s financial regulator on Monday proposed new guidance for companies to tackle sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace, as well as new requirements for major banks and insurance companies to improve their diversity and inclusion goals, Reuters reported.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, the central bank in London, say the proposed measures will promote a healthy organizational culture, tackle groupthink and unlock the talent of employees.

“The proposals set flexible, proportionate minimum standards to raise the bar by placing greater demands on larger firms,” ​​Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said in a press release.

Among other things, companies will need to develop a diversity and inclusion strategy to show how they want to achieve their goals in this area.

They will also collect, report and publish data on the ethnicity of their employees and the number of employees with disabilities. The guidelines leave it up to companies to decide whether they want to report additional data about their employees’ socioeconomic status or their gender identity.

The UK government leaves its own “diversity targets” to companies

Companies will be able to decide on their own “appropriate diversity targets” in terms of gender and ethnicity if they identify under-representation, as well as the specific steps to take to achieve those targets.

Regulators in London have made it clear there will be no industry-wide targets, with the FCA due to publish a final version of the guidance next year.

It also currently offers rules and guidelines to combat harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment, so that employees clearly understand that it is a threat to a healthy work environment.

“Regulated firms and individuals should be in no doubt that this represents a major paradigm shift in how the FCA will monitor and potentially sanction those in the financial community,” said James Alleyne, legal director at law firm Kingsley Naples.

The new measures come as British financial companies are already required to check that their directors and other key employees are behaving “fitly and properly” to continue in their roles.