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News
2015: Year in Review
Thursday 17th December 2015
2015 was a landmark year for the advancement of women's economic empowerment. Here, GBA looks back at some of the year's biggest developments at GBA banks and the world at large.
January
Banco BHD León launched its Women's Market program, Mujer Mujer, offering credit, savings and insurance bundles for women's lifecycle needs.
January
The World Economic Forum put women’s empowerment firmly on their agenda. Melinda Gates noted, "If you invest in a girl or a woman, you invest in everybody else."
March
Germany passed a law requiring 30% of supervisory boards at some of the country's largest companies be comprised of women, starting in 2016 for many.
March
GBA members around the world celebrated the power of women this year with the theme “Make it Happen.”
March
20 years after Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton memorably declared, “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights,” at the 1995 UN World Conference in Beijing, the No Ceilings: Full Participation Report was launched, measuring progress and identifying gaps in the participation of women and girls around the world.
March
Bank of Palestine launched its Felestineya Women's Market program, offering more easily accessible loans and providing non-financial services to women entrepreneurs.
March
BancoEstado's CreceMujer Emprendedora Women's Market program launched, targeting micro-entrepreneurs and start-ups.
March
At the UN Global Compact Women's Empowerment Principles Annual Conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted we all must work together to achieve gender equality, holding ourselves and each other accountable.
April
The UN hosted “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.” GBA CEO Inez Murray participated in the talk, sharing her thoughts on what policymakers could do to encourage more financial services providers to serve women.
April
Bolivian institution Banco Económico, which focuses on MSME banking, joined the GBA.
April
The World Bank announced its UFA2020 goal at its Spring Meeting, and the GBA, along with a subset of members, committed to provide financial access to 1.8M additional women in LAC and Africa by 2020.
May
RBS set a target for one-third of its top 600 management roles to be held by women by 2020.
May
GBA member in Turkey TEB launched its TEB Women Banking program in May. CEO Inez Murray gave an address at the event.
June
The G7 called for the promotion of women's economic empowerment and entrepreneurship, recognizing women as key drivers of innovation, jobs and growth.
June
June
Centenary Bank's Supawoman Club launched, aiming to financially empower all women, from individual consumers to SME owners.
June
Oman's flagship bank, bank muscat, became the first GBA member in the country.
June
Celida Marcelo Luis won Banco BHD León's first-ever Women Who Change the World Award, honoring the women working to better their communities.
July
July
Westpac hosted the largest ever Study Tour at its Sydney headquarters, bringing together more than 30 people from 13 organizations.
August
GBA published the second in its Case Study series, on BLC Bank of Lebanon and its We Initiative Women's Market program.
September
The Sustainable Development Goals featured gender equality as a key focus and were unanimously adopted by UN member states.
September
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico - the largest bank in the country - joined the Alliance.
September
September
Itaú Unibanco hosted the 2015 GBA Summit in São Paulo, Brazil, bringing together 150 attendees from 30 countries.
October
GBA honored member banks with new Women's Market programs with the first-ever Women's Market Champion awards. Here, Soledad Ovando accepts the award for BancoEstado.
October
As a W20 Summit delegate from the US, the GBA was instrumental in developing wording on the Summit Communiqué, which featured 10 recommended areas for G20 policy focus to empower women.
November
HBL of Pakistan officially launched its Women's Market program, "Nisa," arabic for "Women."
November
Bac San José of Costa Rica - the largest private bank in the country - joined the GBA.
December
GBA, the IDB and Data2X's final report, "Measuring Women's Financial Inclusion: The Value of Sex-Disaggregated Data," was released.
December
Banque Franco Lao became the first GBA member in Lao PDR.
GBA December
Newsletter
Toward an Empowered 2016
2015: Year in Review
Bank of Palestine Boosts Women Entrepreneurs’ Confidence, Know-how
New Member Spotlight: BAC San José
Access Bank Celebrates the Power of Nigerian Women
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