APPROACH:
The Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBA) commits to increasing financial access for women and sustainably growing women's wealth across the globe. It will do this by mobilizing 33 additional banks to create Women's Market Programs (WMPs); by facilitating open collaboration among GBA members to share best practices for expanding women's financial access; by committing that GBA members will take actions that have a measurable effect on women's access to financial services; and by quantifying the business impact of serving women.
GBA will focus on: deepening the exchange of best practices through peer-to-peer engagements (Study Tours, Mentoring Program, Annual Summit), harvesting and disseminating knowledge (case studies, focus notes, research studies, communications), and defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for the Women's Market (facilitating the collection, analysis, aggregation and reporting of data externally) to make the business case for full financial inclusion of women. This data will contribute to the global dataset on gender performance being gathered through the Data 2X campaign, thereby promoting the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data, reducing current data gaps and advancing full financial inclusion for women.
Implementing bank partners with existing WMPs will commit to: measuring and reporting to the GBA on their WMP, sharing information about their WMPs with the GBA for publications/communications, actively participating in the exchange of best practices among GBA members, and pro-actively advocating for more banks to target the Women's Market. Those with new WMPs will commit to developing their Customer Value Proposition within 12 months, to measuring and reporting within 24 months and to exchanging Best Practice throughout.
Supporting development finance institution (DFI) partners will commit to: providing debt and equity financing as well as technical assistance to make it easier for banks to target the Women's Market, and proactively encouraging new investees to become members of the GBA and share best practices.
ACTION PLAN:
For each year of this Commitment, GBA will host 2 Study Tours and 1 Annual Summit; publish 5 knowledge products; have a new cohort of bank staff participating in GBA Mentoring Program; expand communications and mobilize 11 additional banks plus additional Development Finance Institutions to commit to implementing strategies for the Women's Market.
Around the world, women are under-served by financial institutions. Among registered, women-owned micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) the demand for credit outpaces supply by around billion. (IFC, McKinsey. Two Trillion and Counting. 2010). One reason for this gap is that female business owners are more likely to rely on personal or family savings for funding while men are more likely to seek financing from banks (IFC. Strengthening Access to Finance for Women-Owned SMEs in Developing Countries. 2011, Goldman Sachs. Credit Where It is Due). Another is that regardless of income level and regardless of whether they are self-employed, salaried employees, or not engaged in paid work at all, women tend to be more dissatisfied with banks, and lag behind their male counterparts in terms of financial capability. (Boston Consulting Group. Women Want More 2009).
These challenges are compounded by the fact that many banks fail to see women as a distinct part of the market for financial services. When it comes to this 'Women's Market', banks lack information about its size, how it should be segmented, what value proposition to offer, and if there is a business case for targeting it. (McKinsey and Co. and GBA in 2014). As a result, banks do little to engage women directly, and their potential value as customers remains largely untapped. (IFC, McKinsey. Two Trillion and Counting. 2010).
To help mobilize banks to target this opportunity, more granular data must be gathered and disseminated. This will allow banks to deliver a more holistic value proposition that provides more women with access to financial services, financial advice, financial capability building, business training, and networking opportunities. (GBA banks customer research). It will also allow them to understand the extent to which the provision of these services will improve their bottom lines.
