Banks have come under scrutiny since the financial crisis over their bonus culture and male-dominated workforces, but a new survey offers some reason for cheer, with Italy's biggest bank by assets and the UK's black horse highlighted for their commitment to gender equality in terms of pay.

Unicredit and Lloyds Bank were among the top three companies with the smallest gender pay gap amongst their employees, according to an analysis of pay data from more than 250 companies by salary-benchmarking site Emolument.com.