The financial services industry has broadly welcomed the Lord Davies review on Thursday, which called on FTSE 100 companies to voluntarily double the number of women board members within four years – although warned against a future threat of a compulsory quota.

The review, which is being carried out by the former Standard Chartered chairman, recommends that women should occupy a quarter of boardroom positions in FTSE 100 companies by 2015. Currently, 12.5% of board members in the top 100 are female, a situation Davies described as "not good enough".