Spotlight on: Exploring New Women’s Markets Segments
Women-owned/led businesses enterprises (WMSMEs) is the common segment across all our members, but truly embedding Women’s Markets in a financial services provider requires looking at women individual consumers as well. This includes segmenting by income, and often overlaying occupation and life moments (i.e. pursuing education, starting or scaling a business, committing to or separating from a romantic partner, buying a home, health events etc.), as these come with financial pressures. Solving for these needs is a particularly successful way of building a relationship with a customer, creating value for both her and the financial services provider (FSP).
After WMSMEs, Women of Wealth (WOW) is an interesting segment to consider when building out the Women’s Markets Program. Not only is there a strong Return on Investment per customer, but because many women of wealth are entrepreneurs themselves, they can be integrated into the WMSME strategy as angel investors and mentors.
The business case for a Women of Wealth strategy is compelling. The data show that women are increasingly controlling a larger share of global wealth, representing one of the fastest-growing and most influential client groups for financial services providers. Yet, despite this rapid growth, Alliance research shows that Women of Wealth continue to be underserved, with many women reporting that financial institutions fail to understand their needs, values, and decision-making styles.
Against this backdrop, Alliance member ABN AMRO Netherlands and their sister company in Germany, Bertmann Bank, shared their rationale and approach to targeting Women of Wealth in this month’s session. There is an oft-quoted statistic that 80 percent of widows in the United States leave their wealth management company within 12 months of losing their spouse because their advisors never established a relationship with them. ABN AMRO shared that they had found that women tend to leave their bank after a divorce. Their focus on Women of Wealth is a retention as well as a growth strategy.
Both banks offer their Women of Wealth the holistic value proposition that all women need—access to timely and relevant information, financial and business education, networking and recognition. As with all Women’s Markets segments convincing and training the frontline is crucial to success. You can read more of their insights here.
Speaking of a multi-segment strategy, this month we are proud to showcase our newest member, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) the country’s largest commercial bank. This month we interview Deputy CEO Soha El-Turky, who shares NBE’s Women’s Markets strategy.
A big shout out to the 250+ students participating, along with myself, in the Gender Data Learning Series. This five-week training, on collecting and using sex disaggregated data to drive Women’s Markets program performance and policy design, is intense work and very insightful. Special thanks to all our members for contributing their insights throughout this series and to the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative and the European Investment Bank for their financial support.
Our members are our experts and our model is codifying and sharing their know-how. Behind our paywall is our All Stars Academy, a five day in-person training taught by Alliance members. Our next Academy is hosted by Alliance member Bank al Etihad in Amman, Jordan, on Feb 1 – 5 2026. We encourage those of you actively developing Women’s Markets programs and are not yet members to join the Alliance, attend the All Stars Academy, and become the financial services provider of choice for women.
Thanks as always to our members and strategic partners for your generous support.
In community,
