Black Students and Investment Banking Careers: Driving Diversity to Wall Street

Investment banking is an industry that has historically had a low representation of minorities. Diversity has become a common buzz word among human resource professionals and American firms have worked hard over the last decades to diversify their ranks. The positive effect that diversity of thought has on performance has fueled a high demand for increasingly diverse and inclusive work environments. Conversely, investment banking (typically considered a profession for upper-class, white males) has not made any strides in regard to attracting more diverse talent to Wall Street. Wall Street firms have been unsuccessful in attracting students of color and women to the industry. In this study, interest levels of Black students will be explored to understand if the shortage of Black bankers is due to supply rather than demand.