Female representation on the boards of financial services firms that signed the Women in Finance Charter rose to 37% last year, from 32% a year earlier.
While on executive committees, females made up 35% in 2022, an increase from 32% twelve months earlier.
However, female representation in senior management and middle management roles increased only marginally by one percentage point, while the share of women occupying technical and professional roles increased by two percentage points.
In contrast, female representation at junior management level declined from 51% to 49%.
The majority of firms reported that they are on track to meet their targets, and across all firms, 12 targets had been achieved in advance of the deadlines that firms had set for themselves.
The progress is reported in the first annual report of the Women in Finance Charter, an initiative seeking to improve female representation in financial services firms operating in Ireland.
It is being driven by Financial Services Ireland, Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, Insurance Ireland and Irish Funds, with support from Government departments and other organisations with an interest in the area.
"The launch of this Annual Report is an important milestone for the Women in Finance charter and highlights the significant progress that has been made since it was established," said Patricia Callan, Director of Financial Services Ireland and Chair of the Women in Finance Charter steering group.
"Increasing female representation makes good business sense."
"It will provide a more diverse set of perspectives, ensure firms are more reflective of the society in which they operate, and expand the talent pool by encouraging more female entrants into a sector which traditionally has been male-dominated."
So far 56 firms, with 45,000 employees between them, have signed the charter and committed to set targets for female representation.
Half of the signatories are large firms with 250 or more employees, with 30% medium sized and the remainder small.
But Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Junior Minister at the Department of Finance said she is concerned that the "collective urgency" to sign up more companies to the charter has waned somewhat in recent months.
"I welcome the progress made to date but I do feel that progress is too slow. I am informed that seven more firms are ready to sign up – and to each one of them let me thank them and champion them in every way I can," she added.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said Ireland can, and should be more ambitious.
"The total number of firms operating in the industry is closer to 800, with over 200 of those employing more than 50 staff," she said.
"I would like to see a greater presence from the Irish Fintech sector, where Enterprise Ireland supports over 250 firms across the country and from sectors such as Aviation Finance who are not represented as signatories of the Charter," she added.
Collectively, the firms set 121 targets on female representation at different levels within their organisations.
The largest number of targets set were at the senior management level and board level.
At board and executive committee level, the mean target is for 39% female representation, compared to the baseline average of 23% and 24% respectively.
The mean targets for female representation are 42% at senior management, 44% at middle management and 49% at junior management levels.
The annual report also shows that improved flexible working options is the most commonly identified action found to be most effective for increasing gender balance.
This was cited by 52% of respondents, compared to the 49% who chose "examining gender balance in succession planning" and the "identifying female leaders" opted for by 46%.
But when it came to barriers to boosting gender balance, the most cited reason was a low number of female applicants for jobs, which was referenced by 63%.
56% referred to low turnover in senior management.
"International research shows that setting transparent targets for change and monitoring progress is an effective strategy for increasing equality within organisations," said Dr Helen Russell, research professor at the ESRI and one of the annual report's authors.
"Greater gender equality in management roles is important from a business and social justice perspective in an industry where almost half of employees are female."
