The Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBA) and the SME Finance Forum (SMEFF), an initiative created by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, are thrilled to announce a partnership to advance banks’ knowledge of and service to the Women’s Market for financial services.
The GBA and SMEFF are collaborating to encourage more retail banks to offer financial and non-financial services to women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs), while simultaneously advocating for the development of the Women’s Market in financial services. As part of these efforts, the partners will leverage their respective existing services, and create joint learning opportunities to deepen banks’ know-how on serving the female economy and the vast business opportunity it represents. Joint offerings include webinars, collaboration on peer learning events such as each other’s Annual Summits and coordination on key policy and advocacy issues with stakeholders such as the G20.
The partnership was signed at the May SME Finance Forum/International Fund for Agriculture Development Annual DFI/IFI Working Group Meeting in Rome, where GBA CEO Inez Murray spoke about the many ways GBA banks are leveraging digital solutions in mobile and online banking. The first joint offering, a webinar on “Developing Distinct Customer Value Propositions: What Banks Need to Know about the Women’s Market,” was held last month, and the second webinar in the series will follow in July.
