Sopra Banking Software Ltd
Gender Pay Report

WHO WE ARE

Sopra Banking Software works with more than 1,500 banks, building societies and specialized finance providers across more than 80 countries worldwide. We help them to develop, deliver and operationalise their digital transformation strategies.
Using our suite of digital banking products and services enables these organisations to deliver remarkable financial services to their clients.

Our main UK offices are Sheffield, Bristol, London, Dunstable, and Durham.
This report offers an insight into Sopra’s gender pay composition in the UK. We are whole-heartedly committed to gender pay parity and transparency in the decisions we take relating to pay.

We collected the data in this Report between April 2022 and April 2023 (complying with The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017).

OUR GENDER MAKEUP AND GENDER PAY

Employees: 25% female / 75% male

For the year ending April 2023, our workforce had a larger percentage of males compared to females, with males accounting for three quarters of our workforce population.

Within this population we discovered a 12% (median = 7.6%) mean average gender pay gap, in favour of men. This factors in the number of employees earning less than their normal basic pay, e.g. those on long-term leave including maternity.

EARNING QUARTILES ANALYSIS

In Sopra Banking Software, the gender pay gap per earning quartiles are significantly lower in comparison to the overall mean and median pay gap.

Furthermore, the gender pay gap in the lower middle quartile was 2.5% (median = 1.93%) in favour of females.
The proportion of male and female employees in each quartile band where as follows:

Q1: M84.5%, F15.5%; Q2: M74%, F26%; Q3: M69%, F31%; Q4: M74%, F26%.

The mean and median gender pay gap per quartile is as follows:
• Q1: Mean – 5.3% in favour of males/Median – 2.9% in favour of females.
• Q2: Mean – 0.4% in favour of males/Median – 3.2% in favour of males.
• Q3: Mean – 2.5% in favour of females/Median – 1.9% in favour of females.
• Q4: Mean – 2.5% in favour of males/Median – 5.8% in favour of males.

BONUS PAYMENTS

Recipients: 83% female / 91% male

We operate several bonus schemes across the business, including an annual bonus scheme, commissions, incentives, and small discretionary one-off payments.

Access to the various schemes is driven by an individual’s job family or level of seniority within our internal career framework.
When we look at those who received a bonus between April 2022 and April 2023, we see 83% of females and 91% of males received a bonus.

The difference between the mean average bonus paid as a percentage of salary was negligible between males and females.
Males received a mean average bonus payment of 6.48% of their salary and females received 6.38% of their salary.
However, the average bonus value paid to men was 53% higher compared to that awarded to females (median = 16%).

This data correlates with the earnings quartile analysis which shows the upper quartile as having the most significant gender pay gap in favour of men and shows a much higher male v female demographic compared to the other 3 quartiles.

INTENTIONS AND ACTIONS

In summary:

• The gender split in the upper earnings quartile is disproportionately in favour of males compared to the other three quartiles.
• Outside of the upper quartile the gender pay gap is in a healthier position with a mean variance of <=2.5% across all three of these quartiles.

We know we have work to do to establish true gender-related pay equity and greater gender demographic balance – but we’re on course to make progress in 2023.

Our performance development approach will play a big part in this. The process focuses entirely on merit, and is based on technical competence, observed behaviours, and performance against objectives.

Our ambition is to strengthen the links between this and our pay framework. That means greater accountability and a progressive and fair approach to remuneration at all levels, whilst removing the subjectivity that can lead to gender bias creeping into reward decisions.

We will continue to adopt a more sophisticated and through approach to salary benchmarking and job evaluation to ensure these are the key factors used in the evaluation of pay equity.
We will continue to look for pay disparities across our business and take the steps to resolve them. Absolute fairness and balance are our goals.

We continue to improve our development offering to our management and leadership population. A key focus of this relates to raising awareness from a E, D&I perspective and how factors such as unconscious bias can influence decisions that relate to recruitment, progressions, reward, and recognition.