Recognizing the significant potential to increase our reach and impact through working with a broad range of financial services providers, this month I am proud to welcome Mastercard Inc to the GBA family. Mastercard is one of the world’s largest payment companies, processing more than 56 billion transactions a year in more than 210 countries – including those of many GBA bank members. In this month’s newsletter we spoke to Ann Cairns, their President of International Markets, about her vision for being the payment company of choice for women worldwide and what she sees as the win-win for GBA and Mastercard.
The strong business case for a tailored card strategy for women is exemplified by Banco BHD León, which launched its first Women’s Market card in 2012. Tarjeta Mujer – a Mastercard that offered competitive interest rates and access to a range of benefits that women value such as health insurance for cancer detection, access to emergency home repair services, and exclusive deals such as discounts at popular retail stores and access to special events – was a huge success. In the first 12 months after launch, BHD León saw 3x more spent on Tarjeta Mujer compared to other cards, 50 percent higher average ticket size and a 1.6x increase in the number of transactions.
This success prompted the bank to launch its comprehensive strategy for the Women’s Market in 2014. The program has also been extraordinarily successful, and the details of exactly how they did this are now available in our latest Case Study, published today.
BHD León has been a vital part of the GBA Mentoring Program over the years, both as mentors and mentees. GBA members can apply to be mentored by one of our best practice banks in the fifth cohort of the GBA Mentoring Program. Kicking off in January 2018, participants sign up for six sessions over the same number of months. Competition for places is intense, so we suggest you get your application in as soon as possible.
A full-capacity crowd will gather in London in two weeks’ time for the 2017 Summit hosted by NatWest. We are particularly proud of the agenda this year, leveraging as it does our location in the world’s top financial center and NatWest’s pioneering role in Women’s Markets in the UK. Their success has much to do with their ability to form strong strategic partnerships with others in the ecosystem, and the same is true of Mastercard. As Ann Cairns says of the GBA-Mastercard partnership: “The win-win is clear: When organizations come together with a common goal and a shared vision, we have the opportunity to effect change faster and do so in a way that drives a common standard.”
We look forward to seeing old friends and welcoming many new ones in a couple of weeks as we truly gain momentum in our ever larger and now more diverse membership.
See you at the Summit
