Barron's (September 22, 2017) - Finra is starting to attract a more diverse pool of arbitrator applicants, but increasing the corps’ diversity it’s looking like a long-term project, Financial Planning reports.

Last year, 14% of applicants were African-American, up from 4% the prior year. And 33% were female, up from 26%, Finra says.

“When I started in 1995, you would never see an all-female panel,” Rick Berry, Finra’s director of dispute resolution, tells Financial Planning. “We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”

A focus on arbitrator diversity is connected to a 2014 study in which the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) found that 80% of arbitrators were male and 40% were over age 70. Such homogeneity “undermines customer confidence in the process,” Christine Lazaro, vice president-elect of PIABA, tells Financial Planning.

At Finra, fewer than a third of arbitrators are under age 60, while fewer than 25% are women. The organization’s diversification efforts include partnerships with over 100 organizations to recruit more women and minorities. It’s planning a recruitment event at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference later this month.