Global banks expand maternity benefits to retain women employees in India

By Preeti Singh and Ruchi Bhatia

HSBC pays for bankers’ nannies in India for up to six years. Morgan Stanley allows pregnant staff to expense cab rides, and Citigroup Inc. lets new moms work from home for a year after their maternity leave runs out.

Across India, global financial firms are expanding maternity benefits to include perks rarely seen elsewhere, part of an effort to attract and retain female employees. Overall, less than a quarter of adult women in India work, among the lowest rates in the world. 

“We will never become a developed country without women’s participation,” said Aditya Mittal, chief human resources officer of Citi India & South Asia. The bank last week announced that new moms will now have the option to work from home for up to a year after their paid leave ends. 

India already mandates a minimum 26 weeks of maternity leave at full pay — among the most in the Group of 20 economies, according to the World Bank’s Gender Data Portal — and employers with more than 50 employees must offer a creche, or daycare, onsite or close by. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government also launched a job training program for women in 2021, and last year touted that adopting flexible hours could be a way to encourage women to work outside the home.

It offers a stark contrast with the US, where there’s no legal provision for paid leave at all. There JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. both offer 16 weeks off for all new parents. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. gives moms and dads 20 weeks off.

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Banks are hungry for talent in India. With US-China tensions growing, many global lenders are targeting the country, drawn by its fast-growing economy and burgeoning middle class. Dealmaking has surged. HSBC is recruiting wealth bankers for its reestablished private banking unit, and Citigroup has identified India as one of its top markets for expansion. 

Including talented women in the recruitment drive, and retaining those already working at the banks, means addressing the specific needs of female employees in the world’s most-populous country. In addition to the required on-site daycare, HSBC Holdings Plc provides female employees with a monthly childcare allowance of up to $216 to pay for a nanny to look after kids up to age of 6.

The bank found that many of its employees wanted to keep their children home, and a nanny adds to the traditional extended-family support systems that new parents typically rely on, said Archana Chadha, head of human resources at HSBC India. The London-based bank, with about 39,000 employees in India, also provides new mothers with flexible hours and post-natal career development. 

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“The idea is to provide support and make life easier for women when they come back to work,” she said in an interview in Mumbai.