Letter from Inez: July 2014

2 Minutes Read

 

As we approach our Annual Summit on September 17th, I am proud to announce that it will be the most informative — and diverse — to date, bringing together old colleagues and welcoming new and prospective ones. More than 40 banks from Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America are expected to attend.

Since last year, we have brought the level of cooperation among members to new heights through initiatives like our Study Tours, our Mentoring Program, and the sharing of key metrics through our Women’s Market Analytics platform. The success of these initiatives has led us to undertake an aggressive expansion strategy, with the goal of reaching 100 banks. To get there, we embarked on a study in partnership with McKinsey & Co. with the world’s largest banks. The study will help us to understand the barriers bank leaders grapple with when considering targeting new segments, like the Women’s Market. It will also make the business case through banks that have successfully added value to women. We are pleased to be able to share these insights at the Summit as well as the first of a series of case studies showcasing the strategies implemented by individual member banks to target the Women’s Market.

The agenda for the Summit has been designed to deepen the sharing of know-how GBA banks have about working with this market as well as to integrate insights from high-level stakeholders so that full financial inclusion for women can be achieved.

Members will also have the opportunity to network and support one another as a community of practitioners. The willingness of our members to share best practices and innovations — from those with established programs to GBA newcomers, like this month’s featured new member, G&T Continental El Salvador — is what will allow us to achieve our goal of reaching 100 member banks.

There are many people who deserve in-person thanks for their successful efforts around the upcoming Summit, but for now I would like to single out Nancy Lee and the team at Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank for being such excellent hosts. We all owe them thanks for what promises to be a substantively rich, productive and collegial gathering.


See you in Washington.

Inez Murray, Chief Executive Officer

Global Banking Alliance for Women