The Global Banking Alliance for Women held its final All-Stars Academy of 2018 June 25-29, bringing 50 attendees from 23 organizations in 13 countries to South Africa for a week of learning and discussion on Women’s Market program best practices.
Day 1
Expert practitioners from GBA All-Star banks Westpac in Australia, BLC Bank in Lebanon, TEB in Turkey and Stanbic in Zambia shared their know-how and Women’s Market experiences throughout the week, training participants on how to develop and implement a successful program that serves women well. The program kicked off with a discussion of the business case for serving the Women’s Market, where Inez Murray gave an overview of the GBA Blueprint that frames the entire All-Stars Academy course. The Experts then shared Case Studies on their own institutions, highlighting pain points and successes they have experienced along their journeys since program launch. Lohini Moodley and Munya Muvezwa from McKinsey & Company offered a look at their latest research on leadership and retail banking trends for the Women’s Market in Africa, including the need for more and better data collection and analytics, how digital solutions are shaping the future, and the potential of artificial intelligence to enable better risk and cost management.
Day 2
The second day of the Academy began with Chanda Katongo of Stanbic Bank discussing how to quantify the Women’s Market opportunity in a market with internal analysis and data as well as external market research. She noted that when Stanbic Bank Zambia disaggregated its data by sex, it found women had higher deposit balances than men and lower NPLs, making them strong bank customers. An interactive discussion followed wherein participants shared their own successes and challenges around the collection and use of sex-disaggregated data, and discussed solutions. IFC’s Andrew McCartney then gave participants a lesson in building customer value propositions (CVPs) for women, noting the importance of putting yourself in the customer’s mindset when developing your CVPs. Claudia Meek offered a fascinating look at McKinsey & Company’s work exploring digital finance for the Women’s Market in Africa, where they have discovered convenience is more important to women than price. The day was anchored by an enlightening discussion with Karimot Tukur of Diamond Bank and Stephen Adili of NMB Bank Tanzania, who shared the latest updates on their mobile and digital banking services for women.
Day 3
On day three, non-financial services took center stage. Simla Unal shared why NFS are so critical to a successful Women’s Market program and the value of information, education, networking and recognition to women. She then discussed the best practice example of TEB in Turkey, which has seen great results with its focus on financial and business education. This was followed by a look at how to assess risk and lend effectively to the Very Small Enterprise segment. Finally, Carine Fersan Choueiry of BLC Bank walked participants through an eye-opening exercise on marketing to women, with a look at the gender stereotypes that are still so prevalent in advertising today. She then offered insights on how to effectively build a Women’s Market sub-brand at a bank.
Day 4
Rachael McKenzie of Westpac kicked off day four with a look at how to embed the Women’s Market program in the bank and achieve internal alignment. She highlighted the importance of engaging Champions and Ambassadors across the bank and ongoing communications about the value of the program to achieving these goals. The day concluded with an exploration of strong gender diversity and inclusion practices that can help financial institutions walk the talk, and strategies to help staff better understand the need for a dedicated Women’s Market program – including exposing unconscious gender bias and Gender Intelligence Training.
Day 5
The final day of the Academy focused on establishing KPIs, scorecards and targets, and tracking data – all of which are critical to proving the success of the program and measuring progress. The week was anchored by the All-Stars Academy Women’s Market pitch competition, where attendees demonstrated everything they had learned during the course by preparing and delivering a 5-minute pitch on the business case for a Women’s Market program in their home market. Participants from all the retail financial institutions in attendance took part in the competition, presenting their Women’s Market pitch to one of the Experts. The best three pitches were chosen, and those participants then presented to the entire room, which voted for the winner. The top three finalists were NMB Bank of Tanzania, AXA Mansard of Nigeria and EG Bank of Egypt. After the votes were tallied, AXA Mansard was deemed the winner. A hearty congratulations to all of the finalists.
The next All-Stars Academy will take place in 2019. Stay tuned to the GBA website for additional information.
