Banco Ficohsa is the largest bank in Honduras by total assets and among the largest in Central America. In 2022, it launched Ficohsa Mujeres Adelante, pairing financial products for women with non-financial support in recognition, information, education and partnerships. Since then, the bank has generated huge growth in its women’s portfolio.
As part of our series catching up with members on their Women’s Markets programs, we spoke with Telma Sevilla, Institutional Programs Manager, about how Mujeres Adelante has evolved and her advice for institutions just starting out.
Alliance: You launched your women-centered program, Mujeres Adelante, in 2022. How has the program evolved since then, and which milestones stand out most when you look back?
Telma Sevilla: Ficohsa Mujeres Adelante was born from a conviction: to support women’s growth, we first need to understand their journeys, their businesses and the barriers they face in moving forward. Since its launch in 2022, the initiative has allowed us to hear very different experiences and to broaden our understanding of what it means to serve women in a relevant way at every stage of their lives and economic activity.
By offering a comprehensive value proposition of financial products and services, we have seen strong uptake among Honduran women, reflected in 70 percent growth in retail banking deposits, 79 percent growth in consumer loans, over 400 percent growth in the placement of merchant acquiring products, and growth of more than 5,000 percent in POS billing volume for women-led businesses.
Our non-financial services are built on four pillars: Recognition, Information, Education, and Partnerships/Networking. Within the Recognition pillar, the Mujeres Adelante Award has been one of the most visible expressions of this journey. We received 65 applications in the first edition and 400 in the fifth, a significant increase.
We have come to know the stories of women working in sectors such as coffee cultivation, renewable energy, construction and entrepreneurship. These stories remind us that there is no single way to lead or to build a business. Looking back, I would highlight both the visibility these women have gained and what their experiences have taught us as we continue developing our strategy.
Alliance: A strong women-focused strategy starts with understanding the customer. How did you change the way you analyze your portfolio to better understand and serve women?
Sevilla: One of our most important lessons has been to stop thinking of women as a uniform group. An entrepreneur who is formalizing her business may need something very different from a business owner looking to expand, or a professional planning her financial future. That difference leads us to look at the portfolio with more specific questions: who are we reaching, which solutions do they use, what is their experience with the bank like, and where might there be needs that we are not yet meeting.
The sex-disaggregated reports we produce include deposits by instrument, loans, credit cards, and POS placement and billing. We also measure product sales to women by branch, which allows us to identify the branches with the highest share of women clients in their portfolio. And, we analyze reasons for loan rejections, which helps us ensure that they are not the result of bias.
Having access to sex-disaggregated information is extremely valuable, because it allows us to be proactive rather than reactive and to keep strengthening our value proposition for the segment. That’s why how we use this analysis matters: to adjust how we approach clients, identify opportunities, or revisit aspects of our offering and service. Ongoing training for our business teams also helps them better serve the women’s segment.
Alliance: Serving women well often requires new skills and mindsets across the organization. How have you trained your staff to support women clients?
Sevilla: A women-focused strategy is put to the test in every interaction with a client. Listening to what she is looking for, understanding where she is in her journey, and offering relevant guidance requires more than knowing a product’s features. It also requires recognizing that her financial needs and decisions may vary depending on her activity, her responsibilities and her growth plans.
For this approach to service to be consistent, learning must reach both the people who design solutions and those who speak directly with clients.
Our staff have been trained on a variety of topics including unconscious bias; collective gender intelligence; gender equality; impact investing and entrepreneurship; obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs; and mentoring for women entrepreneurs, among others.
Alliance: For institutions that are just beginning to build a women-focused strategy, what recommendations and pitfalls to avoid would you share from your own experience?
Sevilla: My recommendation would be to listen before defining solutions; closeness to the client is very important.
That means talking with clients, examining the available data, and understanding why some women are using the institution’s services while others still don’t find what they need.
I would also advise involving different areas of the bank from the start: a strategy of this kind needs to be reflected both in business decisions and in day-to-day service, and it needs the backing of the organization’s leaders.
Strategic partnerships are equally important. A financial institution can facilitate access to resources and services, but the development of an entrepreneur or business owner may also require knowledge, connections and platforms to showcase her work. Partnering with organizations that bring those capabilities makes it possible to offer more complete support and reach women with different needs and journeys.
