Latest SBIF Report Reveals New Data on Women in Chile

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Chile’s SBIF (Superintendencia de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras) launched the 15th edition of its pioneering report “Gender in the Financial System” on July 25th. The launch event included President Michelle Bachelet, Superintendent Eric Parrado, Gender Minister Claudia Pascual and Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America. The report, which has been acclaimed globally, aims to monitor progress in closing gender gaps in the financial system, as well as to contribute to the development of evidence-based public policies.

President Bachelet noted that reports such as this one “help us not only to have the data to adjust our public policies and our actions, … but also to think, discuss and exchange ideas on how to promote the advancement of Chile and the whole region toward comprehensive, inclusive and sustainable development.”

The most recent data showed a narrowing of the gender gap in terms of credit, savings and cash management behavior. However, women’s credit and savings balances are still below those of men. In regard to risk and financial integrity, the data consistently shows that women have lower non-performing loan rates and returned checks.

This latest analysis also shows striking differences in the credit terms received by men and women. For instance, consumer as well as commercial loan data show that women are paying higher interest rates while receiving lower loan sizes — women access consumer loans at interest rates that are 15 percent higher than men, with average loan sizes that are 32 percent lower, with no significant differences observed in loan tenors.

The SBIF report also analyzed business segment differences in the financial system and observed that women participate in the micro segment at 13 percent below the rate of men and have 18 percent lower average loan amounts. In the small segment, these differences are even more substantial.

The SBIF also found that, in general, women exhibited lower levels of debt as a percent of their income than men. However, some differences were observed when looking at different product types; for instance, women exhibited higher levels of debt in regard to mortgages.

Lessons learned on how Chile was able to collect and analyze sex-disaggregated data from its entire financial system were captured in the case study “Catalyzing Inclusive Financial Systems: Chile’s Commitment to Women’s Data,” developed by GBA in partnership with Data2X, the IDB and ECLAC. The report’s main findings can be found in this presentation (in Spanish) given by Eric Parrado during the launch event, as well as in the full report (in Spanish).