One of Europe’s biggest private equity firms has overhauled the way it hires staff in an effort to attract more women to one of the most male-dominated sectors in finance.

CVC Capital Partners, the $116bn firm that was a Formula 1 investor and holds a stake in RAC, the motoring organisation, has stopped requiring candidates to take a long-standing “modeling test”. This is a practical assessment that involves completing a case study of a private equity deal, usually under time pressure.