Scotiabank earned a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Scotiabank is among the more than 840 major U.S. businesses that received top marks in this year’s survey, earning the title of being a best a place to work for LGBTQ+ equality.

To achieve a score of 100 on the CEI, a company must have equal employment opportunity policies, offer equal employment benefits, publicly demonstrate its commitment to equality and exercise social responsibility in the communities in which it works.

“Scotiabank is committed to creating an inclusive culture in which every employee is empowered to reach their fullest potential, respected for who they are and their differences and similarities are embraced,” Michael Kruse, head of GBM U.S. at Scotiabank, said. “The responses to this survey reaffirm that we are focused on the right things at Scotiabank, that our employees feel a sense of belonging and that our support in the LGBTQ+ community has a meaningful impact for our employees.”

Some recent examples of Scotiabank’s commitment to LGBTQ+ equality in the workplace include:

• Medical benefits coverage to LGBTQ+ same sex partners of employees in Canada, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Trinidad & Tobago.
• Supporting transgender employees by enhancing benefits coverage to support a person’s gender affirmation journey to include some healthcare procedures that have historically been categorized as cosmetic.

In addition, Scotiabank was recently recognized for its global diversity and inclusion efforts, and was named one of the top 100 companies of Equileap’s 2021 Gender Equality Global Report and Ranking, as well as a top 25 diverse and inclusive company by Refinitiv in September 2020.