‘There’s something really, really not right going on,' says one of the participants in these CEO Tapes, referencing the gender bias in favour of male fund managers.

In this revealing film, the first time where men and women are equally represented, the participants talk about a myth that asset management is a meritocracy, they expose deliberate and unconscious bias and interestingly they draw a distinction between men and women in the way they push for what they want.

The men are generally more direct when asking for pay rises and promotion. ‘Think about what’s in it for you,' is the advice one of the female CEOs gives to women in annual review meetings. Several specific remedies are disclosed and discussed – such as blind CVs, long bias training sessions, putting diverse teams together on projects.

But none of them favour quick fixes such as positive discrimination because they can sap morale, particularly of younger male employees.

The participants were:

*Andrew Schlossberg - chief executive officer, Invesco EMEA

* Hanneke Smits - chief executive officer, Newton Investment Management

* Lucy Macdonald - chief investment officer global equity, Allianz Global Investors GmbH

* Sridhar Chandrasekharan - global chief executive officer, HSBC Global Asset Management

Note the report mentioned in the film is Diversity in Portfolio Management, by Olivia Seddon-Daines and Yasmine Chinwala, of New Financial