An employee says the bank ignored calls to include IVF among benefits for UK staff

One of the biggest American investment banks has come under fire for offering free gender reassignment surgery to its UK staff — but not fertility treatment.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), which employs about 1,200 bankers and 600 back-office staff in London, extended its health insurance policy to pay for staff to transition three years ago, becoming one of the first companies in Britain to do so.

However, an employee said the policy still specifically excluded both infertility diagnosis and IVF and the bank had ignored recent calls for this to change.

“It’s unfair,” she said. “The pushback we get is that [infertility treatment] is covered on the NHS, but the NHS is covering less and less these days and . . . people