Bank to the Super-Rich Defeats ‘Unspoken Sexism’ Case

(Bloomberg) -- Coutts & Co., the U.K. private bank that caters to the super-rich, won an employment tribunal case in which a female executive accused it of “unspoken sexism,” according to a spokeswoman for Coutts.

The London tribunal dismissed all of the claims brought by Donna Ball, an associate director at the bank, the Coutts spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The bank was “successful on all counts,” she said.

The tribunal’s judgment hasn’t yet been published, and Ball didn’t immediately respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.

In the lawsuit, Ball had argued that an “unspoken sexism” at the lender prevents women from speaking up when they’re denied promotions and that men aren’t properly disciplined for sexual harassment. She described “glass ceilings” and lower pay for women in her filings for the case.

Ball began working for Coutts -- whose client base she said “historically has included the monarch, the royal family and most of the nobility” -- as an associate director in December 2010, working as a relationship manager. She had a starting salary of 53,000 pounds ($69,000) and an overall package worth 68,900 pounds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kaye Wiggins in London at kwiggins4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.