Sex bias: Indian banker, 5 others sue for £800m

Last year, another major investment player, Morgan Stanley, was forced to pay out 30 million pounds ($54 million) to settle sexual discrimination cases.

The six employees who are bringing this case forward are from both the New York and London offices of DKW. They have filed the claim in a New York court, citing that they were treated as second-class citizens in the institution despite their qualifications and years of service and experience.

Among them is Jyoti Ruta, a DKW capital markets director based in New York, who has worked for the company since 1994. She claims that when a group of colleagues went out for a business dinner to celebrate the success of a deal, she was put under pressure to leave the meal so that the others (all male) could take the clients to a strip club. Another of the group, Katherine Smith, who is from DKW’s London office, claimed that her male colleagues referred to her as the ‘‘Pamela Anderson of trading,’’ a reference to the American blonde actress who is known for her silicon breast implants.

Ruta said in a statement: ‘‘We are confident that we will prevail in this litigation and ultimately show the rest of the financial community that you cannot continue to discriminate against women without paying the price.’’ DKW has said that it will ‘‘vigorously defend this matter’’ and that it ‘‘fully complies with all applicable employment laws and is confident that any claims to the contrary are without merit.’’ However, the City will be watching the case with close interest as the results will have an enormous repercussion on other merchant banks and financial institutions where women still constitute a minority at senior level.

For Ruta, it was a mark of her high-flying ability that she was a capital markets director given that she is both female and of ethnic minority origin, which is rarer still. At DKW, women only consist oftwo per cent of the managing directors of the capital markets division.