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Gordon Brown's independent adviser on the City today rejected Harriet Harman's claim that the financial crisis would not have happened if women had been in charge of banks.
Sir David Walker, who is heading a review of bank bonuses and structures, told MPs he did not believe putting more women on boards was the key to making the financial services industry less risky.
Ms Harman claimed this summer that if American investment giant Lehman Brothers had been "Lehman Sisters" its collapse could have been avoided. She and Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, have suggested that putting more women on companies' boards would reduce the kind of reckless investments that led to the credit crunch.
But Sir David told the Commons Treasury select committee that leading female financiers were firmly opposed to any kind of bias in their favour.
"I have consulted half a dozen ladies in prominent positions in the City and without exception they would all take the position I take - which is they wouldn't be in favour of positive discrimination," he said.
Labour MP Sally Keeble asked Sir David: "Do you see having more women on boards and greater diversity as being key to improving risk management?"
He replied: "Not as being key. I see diversity as being important in a wider sense. For example, having on a board someone who's had a tough, up-against-the-ropes experience in a totally different situation, perhaps as a chief executive.
"I don't see how in short order we can bring a different population on to boards."
Sir David warned that the shrinking number of board positions in the past 10 years made it difficult for women to equip themselves to be non-executive directors.
"Is very hard to parachute a lady into a board situation as a non-executive if they haven't had experience as an executive on their own board," he said.
Sir David, whose final report on cutting unnecessary risk in banking is due for publication this month, rejected Ms Harman's claim that his study would be key to tackling the issue of "sexism in the City".
He said the willingness of board members to challenge chief executives when they made mistakes was more important than their gender.
When asked about the failures of the RBS and Northern Rock boards to keep in check former chief executives Sir Fred Goodwin and Adam Applegarth, he said: "It's not satisfactory. We need to change the culture and have a much better understanding that boards are not golf club committees".
Ms Harman said in August: "Somebody did say ... that if it had been Lehman Sisters, rather than Lehman Brothers, then there may not have been as much [chaos].
"Women make up half the workforce of insurance companies and banks. Why shouldn't they have a say on boards as well?"
