In This Issue
Spotlight On: #BreakTheBias
Marketing is a powerful tool for financial services providers not only to reach women, but to influence behavior and encourage social change. This month, to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD), our members launched game-changing campaigns that spanned the gamut, from celebrating and recognizing women to shattering stereotypes and influencing behaviors.
These campaigns can only be effective if based on strong programs for women customers on the ground. That’s why our Alliance InBrief lays out a series of tactics for adopting an authentic, effective gender-lens marketing approach that the IWD campaigns exemplify.
IWD also saw the launch of excellent research highlighting the nature of the gender gap and quantifying the opportunity of the female economy. The 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) ranked 65 economies according to socioeconomic factors that help women thrive in business. The assessment criteria for the Index acts as a playbook for what all countries should be paying attention to, and this year’s report also offers important insights on the impact of the pandemic on women business owners. The research is part of Mastercard’s strategy to support women entrepreneurs, which includes a commitment to connecting 25 million women entrepreneurs to the digital economy by 2025 through training, education and access to affordable financing.
Winner of the Alliance Hack 2021, LXME, launched its “LXME Women & Money Power 2022” report, which offers fascinating insights on the savings and investment strategies of women in India. The stark facts, including the finding that 55 percent of women are not investing at all, represent a huge opportunity for LXME, and the company ably parlayed this research into a broad campaign that highlighted the issues and positioned wealthtech as part of the solution.
Similarly, ABN AMRO’s “The Value of Inclusivity in Banking” found surprising gaps in the use of financial and non-financial services by women in the Netherlands and fomented national conversations about solutions.
These national and cross-country studies, originated by Alliance members, not only provide helpful insights for business strategies but also foster awareness across the sector and encourage leading ecosystem actors to work together with a common goal.
This month, we also extend a warm welcome to our newest tech member, Juancho Te Presta (JTP), a Colombian fintech that is working to limit biases in credit algorithms so that more women can borrow. Please tune in to the video interview with Juan Saldarriaga, founder of JTP, who shares his vision for how the organization will solve the financing gap for women.
A shout-out to all 132 students of our 2022 All Stars Academy, which finished yesterday, and to Development Bank of Rwanda, the winner of our final pitch competition! We wish you all the very best as you continue to design and scale your programs.
We thank all our members for their extraordinary work to #BreakTheBias and #ChampionTheFemaleEconomy.
In community,
