Alliance members are making big investments in supporting women’s entrepreneurship. Read how:

HSBC: HSBC launched the Female Entrepreneur Fund, which will lend USD $1 billion to female-owned businesses over the next 12 months. This complements the HSBC Roar initiative, which enables female entrepreneurs, including Fund applicants, to access a series of masterclasses hosted by experienced business leaders; tailored networking sessions with major companies; opportunities to pitch to angel investors and receive insights from the investor community; and bespoke advisory services from HSBC bankers. These initiatives are designed to break down the barriers faced by female entrepreneurs and help them scale and grow their businesses.

Garanti BBVA Turkey: Garanti BBVA recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of its Women Entrepreneur Competition. CEO Recep Bastuğ spoke at the ceremony, stating, “we will continue to work for the development of the ecosystem with our financial and non-financial support for women entrepreneurs as we have been for 15 years.” Over 42,000 women entrepreneurs have applied to this competition since its inception.

Great Wall Bank China: Great Wall Bank hosted a series of community-driven events for women customers to increase its recognition as a bank of choice for women. The events, such as the lantern decoration for the Mid-Autumn festival, centered on holidays, enabling the bank to connect with women around a sense of celebration and national heritage. Additionally, Great Wall’s bank managers have partnered with local Female Entrepreneurs Associations to reach and provide financial services to businesswomen in rural areas.

BNP Paribas France: BNP Paribas is launching the “French Women Entrepreneurs 40,” created in partnership with BeaBoss, Bpifrance, EcoVadis and HEC Paris. The list will highlight and offer financial and non-financial support to 40 growing French companies run by women. It is the first annual list of its kind in France.

BNL BNP Paribas: BNL BNP Paribas, BNP Paribas’ Italian brand, is helping facilitate the Women’s Enterprise Fund, a fund set up by the Ministry of Economic Development to support women-owned businesses. The fund includes grants for non-repayable investment projects up to €250,000 for companies established within the last year and subsidized loans for projects up to €400,000 from companies that have been running for more than a year. To help women-owned SMEs make the most of this generous offering, BNL BNP Paribas is working with its subsidiary Artigiancassa, a reference bank for Italian SMEs, to provide guarantees in anticipation of the funds’ release, as well as advisory services to help women entrepreneurs make the best use of them with projects like digitizing sales processes and enhancing energy efficiency.

Banco Nacional Costa Rica: BNCR’s Women 360 Program was recognized with an Entrepreneurial Woman award by the Latin American Association of Financial Institutions for Development (ALIDE). The program was created to help close the gender gap in entrepreneurship in Costa Rica by providing recognition and advisory services to women’s SMEs. In 2021, the program engaged 300 women entrepreneurs with virtual training sessions, and 50 of them received continuing advisory and leadership mentoring. The program led to a 27.5-percent average sales increase for those SMEs.