Notes

Introduction

• financial inclusion data have been collected Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• it improves outcomes for families and wider communities as well Esther Duflo, “Women Empowerment and Economic Development,” Journal of Economic Literature 50, no. 4 (December 2012): 1051–1079, https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.50.4.1051; World Bank, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4391.
• $2 trillion in new deposits flowing into the financial system James Manyika, Susan Lund, Marc Singer, et al., Digital Financial Inclusion for All: Powering Inclusive Growth in Emerging Economies (New York: McKinsey & Co., September 2016), 43–44.
• women-led micro, small, and medium-sized businesses “MSME Finance Gap,” Data Sites, SME Finance Forum, https://www.smefinanceforum.org/data-sites/msme-finance-gap#field-data-sites-tabs-tab-2.
• $50 billion in insurance premium income annually AXA Group, Accenture, and International Finance Corporation, She for Shield: Insure Women to Better Protect All (Washington, DC: IFC and AXA Group, 2015), 4.
• addressing the disparity between men’s and women’s access to finance Goksu Aslan, Corinne Deléchat, Monique Newiak, et al., “Inequality in Financial Inclusion and Income Inequality” IMF Working Paper WP/17/236 (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2017); Martin Čihák and Ratna Sahay, “Finance and Inequality,” IMF Staff Discussion Note SDN/20/01 (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2020).
• 96 million people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty UN Women, “Women Bear the Brunt, as COVID Erodes Progress on Eradicating Extreme Poverty,” UN News, September 2, 2020, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/09/1071502.
• contraction in the economy is directly tied to declines in women’s labor force participation World Bank, Global Economic Prospects (Washington, DC: World Bank, January 2021).
• suffered 54 percent of global job losses Anu Madgavkar, Olivia White, Mekala Krishnan, et al., “COVID-19 and Gender Equality: Countering the Regressive Effects” (New York: McKinsey & Co., July 15, 2020), https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/covid-19-and-gender-equality-countering-the-regressive-effects.
• on any list of growth-oriented policy options World Bank, Global Economic Prospects.
• mobile banking services, are closely related to women’s labor force participation Madgavkar et al., “COVID-19 and Gender Equality.”
• more of the family benefits from the choices she makes World Bank, World Development Report 2012.
• women are loyal, profitable customers for financial service providers Michael J. Silverstein, Kate Sayre, and John Butman, Women Want More: How to Capture Your Share of the World’s Largest, Fastest-Growing Market (New York: HarperBusiness, 2009).
• showed that broad-based inclusion is possible Zachary Kazzaz, Emergency Disbursements during COVID-19: Regulatory Tools for Rapid Account Opening and Oversight (San Mateo, CA: Glenbrook Partners, 2020).

Part I: Women’s Financial Inclusion: Clearing the Roadblocks to Empowerment

• shut out from all formal financial services Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• as a necessary condition for success Leora Klapper, Mayada El-Zoghbi, and Jake Hess, “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Financial Inclusion,” working paper, CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) and UNSGSA (United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development) (Washington, DC: CGAP, April 2016), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/Working-Paper-Achieving-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Apr-2016_0.pdf.

Chapter 1: The Road to Financial Inclusion

• typically from the poorest households Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• 43 percent have a mobile money account Kelsey Piper, “What Kenya Can Teach Its Neighbors—and the US—about Improving the Lives of the ‘Unbanked,’” Vox, September 11, 2020, https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21420357/kenya-mobile-banking-unbanked-cellphone-money.
• adequately addressing these customers’ needs Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• “a first step toward broader financial inclusion” website of the World Bank, “Financial Inclusion Overview,” https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/financialinclusion/overview.
• twenty more are in the course of doing so Nimal Fernando and Robin Newnham, National Financial Inclusion Strategies: Current State of Practice (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Alliance for Financial Inclusion, June 2018), https://www.afi-global.org/sites/default/files/publications/2018-06/National%20Financial%20Inclusion%20Strategies.pdf.
• collecting data through the Global Findex database Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• women are more financially excluded than men Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• the unbanked typically achieve lower levels of education Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• women’s share of the world’s illiterate population hasn’t change in more than twenty years UNESCO, “Women and Girls’ Education—Facts and Figures,”http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/international-womens-day-2014/women-ed-facts-and-figure.
• employment in the formal labor force is a strong predictor of having a bank account Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• typically as home-based workers or street vendors Florence Bonnet, Joann Vanek, and Martha Chen, Women and Men in the Informal Economy—A Statistical Brief (Manchester, UK: Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, 2019), https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_711798.pdf.
• such as food security, health, and education World Bank, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4391.
• from their fathers’ improved financial circumstances Bohong Liu, Ling Li, and Chunyu Yang, Gender Equality in China’s Economic Transformation (Beijing: United Nations System in China, 2015), http://www.un.org.cn/uploads/20180326/2063f2493b160cd25bb79ce54fe8dcc1.pdf.
• All these qualities are present with digital financial services Women’s World Banking, Digital Savings: The Key to Women’s Financial Inclusion? (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2015), http://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Digital-Savings-The-Key-to-Women’s-Financial-Inclusion_WomensWorldBanking.pdf.
• 33 percent disparity between men’s and women’s use of mobile money accounts Oliver Rowntree et al., The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020 (London: GSM Association, 2020), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GSMA-The-Mobile-Gender-Gap-Report-2020.pdf.
• cultural norms represent greater obstacles for women than for men Ratna Sahay et al., “The Promise of Fintech: Financial Inclusion in the Post COVID-19 Era,” IMF Departmental Paper No. 20/09 (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, July 2020), https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Departmental-Papers-Policy-Papers/Issues/2020/06/29/The-Promise-of-Fintech-Financial-Inclusion-in-the-Post-COVID-19-Era-48623.
• substantially more men purchasing their own devices than women Rowntree et al., The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020.
• “family disapproval” as the principal obstacle to smartphone ownership Rowntree et al., The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020.
• breakdown of long-established “purity” and courtship norms Giorgia Barboni, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, et al., A Tough Call: Understanding Barriers to and Impacts of Women’s Mobile Phone Adoption in India (Cambridge, MA: Evidence for Policy Design, Harvard Kennedy School, 2018), https://wappp.hks.harvard.edu/publications/tough-call-understanding-barriers-and-impacts-womens-mobile-phone-adoption-india.
• passport to financial inclusion Shalini Unnikrishnan, Jim Larson, Boriwat Pinpradab, et al., “How Mobile Money Agents Can Expand Financial Inclusion,” Boston Consulting Group, February 14, 2019, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2019/how-mobile-money-agents-can-expand-financial-inclusion; Piper, “What Kenya Can Teach Its Neighbors.”
• as a reason for remaining unbanked Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• if M-Pesa were no longer available to them William Jack and Tavneet Suri, “Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA,” NBER Working Paper 16721 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2011), https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w16721/w16721.pdf.
• driven largely by mobile money services Jack and Suri, “Mobile Money.”
• 34 percent of all accounts registered globally Nika Naghavi, State of the Industry: Report on Mobile Money 2019 (London: GSMA, 2020), https://www.gsma.com/sotir/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GSMA-State-of-the-Industry-Report-on-Mobile-Money-2019-Full-Report.pdf.
• twenty times the reach of a physical banking facility Naghavi, State of the Industry.
• purchase airtime for their cell phones Unnikrishnan et al., “Mobile Money Agents”; WorldRemit, “All about Mobile Money,” https://www.worldremit.com/en/mobile-money; GSMA, Mobile Money Definitions (London: GSMA, July 2010), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/mobilemoneydefinitionsnomarks56.pdf.
• uses the remainder to top up her cell-phone airtime Unnikrishnan et al., “Mobile Money Agents”; WorldRemit, “All About Mobile Money”; GSMA, Mobile Money Definitions.
• “run their own basic personal intermediation services” Stuart Rutherford, “The Poor and Their Money: An Essay about Financial Services for Poor People,” working paper (Manchester, UK: University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management, January 1999), http://www.globalization101.org/uploads/File/The_Poor_and_Their_Money.pdf.
• reasons beyond their shared membership Michael Aliber, “The Importance of Informal Finance in Promoting Decent Work among Informal Operators: A Comparative Study of Uganda and India,” Social Finance Working Paper 66 (Geneva: International Labour Office, 2015).
• “everyone else is obeying the rules” Rutherford, “The Poor and Their Money,” 26.
• at the end of the cycle CARE, “VSLA 101 / FAQs on Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs),” 2020, https://www.care.org/our-work/education-and-work/microsavings/vsla-101.
• to save rather than as a means to borrow Beatriz Armendáriz and Jonathan Morduch, The Economics of Microfinance, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010).
• build up savings or pay down debt Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, et al., Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 10–14, 24–26.
• reluctant to dip into savings they had already managed to accumulate Collins et al., Portfolios of the Poor, 27–31.
• draw down hard-won savings Collins et al., Portfolios of the Poor, 32.
• keep money out of temptation’s way Collins et al., Portfolios of the Poor, 31.
• “a lack of tools” Collins et al., Portfolios of the Poor, 25.
• poor-quality financial tools available to them Collins et al., Portfolios of the Poor, 12.
• sale of household or business assets to satisfy monthly contributions Armendáriz and Morduch, The Economics of Microfinance, 74–76.
• over $500 billion in ROSCA transactions were completed worldwide in 2015 Statista, “Value of Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) Transactions Worldwide in 2015, by Country,” Statista Research Department, February 2017, https://www.statista.com/statistics/756059/value-of-rosca-transactions-by-country.
• “also explain why ROSCAs stay together” Armendáriz and Morduch, The Economics of Microfinance, 76.
• “as a way to harness their own power” Caroline Shenaz Hossein, Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power, and Violence in the Black Americas (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 331–332.
• community-based place to save as well as to borrow Armendáriz and Morduch, The Economics of Microfinance, 80–82
• the ROSCA as a way to maintain savings discipline Aliber, “The Importance of Informal Finance in Promoting Decent Work among Informal Operators.”
• account balances are not insured Advait Rao Palepu, “Chit Funds: India’s Oldest Form of Banking Seeks a New Look,” BloombergQuint, December 17, 2019, https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/chit-funds-indias-oldest-form-of-banking-is-getting-a-fintech-makeover.
• a genuine path out of poverty Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (New York: PublicAffairs, 1999), 1–3, 61.
• without reliance on either formal employment or charity Ananya Roy, Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development (New York: Routledge, 2010), 24.
• in the event of default on the loan Niclas Benni and Rahul Barkataky, “The Role of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Providing Financial Services to Rural Women” (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2018), http://www.fao.org/3/CA2707EN/ca2707en.pdf; “History of Microfinance, Small Loans, Big Revolution,” Newsroom, BNP Paribas, August 17, 2017, https://group.bnpparibas/en/news/history-microfinance-small-loans-big-revolution; Roy, Poverty Capital, 26.
• struggled to achieve even a 1 percent ROA Women’s World Banking, network member financial reporting template, 2006–2010.
• “an important antidote to poverty” Roy, Poverty Capital, 22.
• “Micro-credit is one such means” Ole Danbolt Mjøs, “Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony Speech,” transcript (Oslo: Norwegian Nobel Institute, December 10, 2006), https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2006/ceremony-speech.
• $15.3 billion in assets invested in MFIs Symbiotics, 2018 Symbiotics MIV Survey: Market Data & Peer Group Analysis (Geneva: Symbiotics, September 2018), https://symbioticsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Symbiotics-2018-MIV-Survey.pdf.
• 140 million microfinance borrowers Greta Bull, “The Best Laid Plans . . . CGAP’s Response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus),” CGAP Blog, April 16, 2020, https://www.cgap.org/blog/cgaps-response-covid-19-coronavirus.
• “predatory capitalism, and ever-expanding debt” Roy, Poverty Capital, 5.
• the MFI was reaching a very low-income population Richard Rosenberg, “CGAP Reflections on the Compartamos Initial Public Offering: A Case Study on Microfinance Interest Rates and Profits,” Focus Note 42 (Washington, DC: CGAP, June 2007), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/researches/documents/CGAP-Focus-Note-CGAP-Reflections-on-the-Compartamos-Initial-Public-Offering-A-Case-Study-on-Microfinance-Interest-Rates-and-Profits-Jun-2007.pdf.
• larger individual loans to microentrepreneurs Women’s World Banking, “Individual Lending to Microenterprises in Mexico” (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2014), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WomensWorldBanking-Microenterprise-Individual-Lending-Mexico.pdf.
• “not become loan sharks ourselves” Muhammad Yunus, “Lifting People Worldwide out of Poverty,” interview, Knowledge@Wharton (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, May 27, 2009, https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/muhammad-yunus-lifting-people-worldwide-out-of-poverty.
• the MFI’s mission going forward Rosenberg, “CGAP Reflections on the Compartamos Initial Public Offering.”
• blamed the private MFIs for stealing their customers CGAP, “Andhra Pradesh 2010: Global Implications of the Crisis in Indian Microfinance,” Focus Note 6 (Washington, DC: CGAP, November 2010), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/CGAP-Focus-Note-Andhra-Pradesh-2010-Global-Implications-of-the-Crisis-in-Indian-Microfinance-Nov-2010.pdf.
• penalties for abusive collection practices and predatory lending CGAP, “Andhra Pradesh 2010.”
• mitigate risks and smooth consumption when needed Abhijit Banerjee, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman, The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation (Cambridge, MA: MIT, Department of Economics, March 2014), https://economics.mit.edu/files/5993; Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, “Microcredit: Impacts and Limitations” (Cambridge, MA: MIT, J-PAL, 2018), https://doi.org/10.31485/pi.2268.2018.
• men felt that their traditional role as the primary breadwinner came under threat Beatriz Armendáriz and Nigiel Roome, “Gender Empowerment in Microfinance,” MPRA Paper 31040 (Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, June 2008), https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/213927434.pdf; Naila Kabeer, “Conflicts over Credit: Re-evaluating the Empowerment Potential of Loans to Women in Rural Bangladesh,” World Development 29, no. 1 (January 2001): 63–84, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(00)00081-4.
• “transformation of gender roles was underway” S. R. Schuler, S. M. Hashemi, and S. H. Badal, “Men’s Violence against Women in Rural Bangladesh: Undermined or Exacerbated by Microcredit Programmes?,” Development in Practice 8, no. 2 (1998): 116.
• “as well as between women” Caroline Shenaz Hossein, “Using a Black Feminist Framework: A Study Comparing Bias against Female Entrepreneurs in Caribbean Micro-banking,” Intersectionalities 2 (2013): 51–70, 52, https://journals.library.mun.ca/ojs/index.php/IJ/article/viewFile/697/716.
• nonfinancial services that the MFI included with the loan Manuela Angelucci, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman, “Microcredit Impacts: Evidence from a Randomized Microcredit Program Placement Experiment by Compartamos Banco,” NBER Working Paper 19827 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014), https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w19827/w19827.pdf.
• including nonfinancial services alongside financial services Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), “Designing Financial Services and Social Protection Programs to Enhance Women’s Economic Empowerment” (Cambridge, MA: MIT, J-PAL, last modified February 2021), https://doi.org/10.31485/pi.3090.2021.
• offered in ninety-three countries around the world Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 9, 2016): 1288–1292, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.
• only 18 percent offer insurance products MIX Market (data catalog) (Washington, DC: World Bank, Center for Financial Inclusion), https://www.themix.org/mix-market.
• digital transformation of the microfinance sector Jessica Schicks, “Covid-19 Has Made MFI Digital Transformation Even More Urgent: How Can Funders Help?,” blog post, FinDev Gateway (Washington, DC: CGAP, June 30, 2020), https://www.findevgateway.org/blog/2020/06/covid-19-has-made-mfi-digital-transformation-even-more-urgent-how-can-funders-help.
• digital financial services that are not delivered in a responsible way Greta Bull, “After the Storm: How Microfinance Can Adapt and Thrive,” blog post, CGAP Leadership Essay Series (Washington, DC: CGAP, October 14, 2020, https://www.cgap.org/blog/after-storm-how-microfinance-can-adapt-and-thrive.
• leaving women even further behind Better Than Cash Alliance, Women’s World Banking, and the World Bank Group, “Advancing Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion,” report prepared for the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, Saudi Arabia, July 2020, https://www.gpfi.org/sites/gpfi/files/sites/default/files/saudig20_women.pdf.
• more risk averse than men Jessica Clempner, Women in Financial Services 2020: A Panoramic Approach (New York: Oliver Wyman, 2019), https://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/v2/publications/2019/November/Women-In-Financial-Services-2020.pdf.
• in-person interaction between the potential customer and lending staff Laurie Goodman, Jun Zhu, and Bing Bai, Women Are Better Than Men at Paying Their Mortgages (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, September 2016), https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/84206/2000930-Women-Are-Better-Than-Men-At-Paying-Their-Mortgages.pdf; Marcia Tal, “Taking a Stand against Bias,” FrameWork (newsletter), PositivityTech, June 5, 2020, https://positivitytech.com/taking-a-stand-against-bias.
• calculations that drive decision-making technology Ayanna Howard and Charles Isbell, “Diversity in AI: The Invisible Men and Women,” MIT Sloan Management Review (Winter 2021), https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/diversity-in-ai-the-invisible-men-and-women.
• despite her higher credit score Karen Hao, “There’s an Easy Way to Make Lending Fairer for Women. Trouble Is, It’s Illegal,” MIT Technology Review, November 15, 2019, https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/11/15/131935/theres-an-easy-way-to-make-lending-fairer-for-women-trouble-is-its-illegal.
• “a broader discussion we must have about equal credit access” Hartley Charlton, “Investigation Clears Goldman Sachs of Apple Card Gender Bias,” MacRumors, March 23, 2021, https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/23/apple-card-cleared-of-gender-bias.
• and payments ($7 billion) Clempner, Women in Financial Services 2020.
• by as much as $4.2 trillion Philip Osafo-Kwaako et al., Mobile Money in Emerging Markets: The Business Case for Financial Inclusion (New York: McKinsey & Co., March 2018), https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/mobile-money-in-emerging-markets-the-business-case-for-financial-inclusion.
• operators’ ability to scale up profitably James Manyika, Susan Lund, Marc Singer, et al., Digital Financial Inclusion for All: Powering Inclusive Growth in Emerging Economies (New York: McKinsey & Co., 2016).
• reduce their dependence on customer fees Manyika et al., Digital Financial Inclusion for All.
• could be generated digitally by 2025 Osafo-Kwaako et al., Mobile Money in Emerging Markets.
• that figure is likely to grow Naghavi, State of the Industry.
• $390 million in digital loans had been disbursed by mid-2019 Naghavi, State of the Industry.
• the number of bank accounts now exceeding mobile money accounts William Cook and Claudia McKay, “Banking in the M-PESA Age: Lessons from Kenya” Working Paper (Washington, DC: CGAP, September 2017), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/researches/documents/Working-Paper-Banking-in-the-M-PESA-Age-Sep-2017.pdf.
• households above the poverty line Suri and Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.”
• more profitable entrepreneurial businesses or retail sales Suri and Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.”
• revenue to reach 50 percent soon Dickson Otieno, “Safaricom Full Year 2019 Results Summary: Ksh. 63.4 Billion Net Profits, M-Pesa Revenue Up to Ksh. 74 Billion,” Tech-ish.com, May 3, 2019, https://tech-ish.com/2019/05/03/safaricom-full-year-2019-results.
• “although mobile phone use correlates well with economic development, mobile money causes it” Suri and Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.”
• forgoing better products on better terms Sharon Chen, Sebastian Doerr, Jon Frost, et al., “The Fintech Gender Gap,” BIS Working Paper 931 (Basel, Switzerland: Bank for International Settlements, March 11, 2021), https://www.bis.org/publ/work931.htm.

Chapter 2: What’s Standing in the Way of Women’s Financial Inclusion?

• through informal financial transactions Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and Women’s World Banking, Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID 19: Opportunities and Considerations for Women’s Inclusion and Empowerment (Seattle: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, CGAP, and Women’s World Banking, 2020), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/publications/2020.Digital-Cash-Transfers-in-Times-of-COVID-19-Opportunities-and-Considerations-for-Womens-Inclusion-and-Empowerment.pdf.
• to what does—and doesn’t—appear to work Adele Atkinson and Flore-Anne Messy, “Promoting Financial Inclusion through Financial Education: OECD/INFE Evidence, Policies and Practice,” Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions 34 (Paris, OECD, 2013), https://doi.org/10.1787/5k3xz6m88smp-en; Tim Kaiser and Lukas Menkhoff, “Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If So, When?,” World Bank Economic Review 31, no. 3 (October 2017), 611–630, https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhx018; Lisa Xu and Bilal Zia, “Financial Literacy around the World: An Overview of the Evidence with Practical Suggestions for the Way Forward,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6107 (Washington, DC: World Bank, June 2012), https://ssrn.com/abstract=2094887; Tabea Bucher-Koenen, Annamaria Lusardi, Rob J. M. Alessie, et al., “How Financially Literate Are Women? An Overview and New Insights,” Working Paper 2016–1 (Washington, DC: Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, February 2016), https://gflec.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/WP-2016-1-How-Financially-Literate-Are-Women.pdf.
• information that had been missing from the financial literacy curriculum Ryan Newton, “Women in Mexico Need More Than Digital G2P to Achieve Financial Inclusion” (New York: Women’s World Banking, February 5, 2018), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights-and-impact/women-mexico-digital-g2p-financial-inclusion.
• more involvement in household decision-making Chhavi Ghuliani and Elissa Goldenberg, “Financial Inclusion in the Supply Chain: An Evaluation of the HERfinance Pilot in India” (San Francisco: BSR, March 2015), https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_HERfinance_Evaluation_2015.pdf.
• enhance the chances for positive behavioral change Kaiser and Menkhoff, “Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If So, When?”
• previously kept under the mattress Hatton National Bank, Women’s World Banking private client advisory assignment, 2015.
• nudging changes in financial behavior Gunhild Bert and Bilal Zia, “Harnessing Emotional Connections to Improve Financial Decisions: Evaluating the Impact of Financial Education in Mainstream Media,” Journal of the European Economic Association 15, no. 5 (October 2017), 1025–1055, https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvw021.
• principal motivator behind their decision to save Women’s World Banking, “Can a Soap Opera Help a Woman Save?” (New York: Women’s World Banking, December 22, 2014O, https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights-and-impact/can-soap-opera-help-women-save-financial-education.
• restrictive gender norms they observe Oliver Rowntree et al., The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2020 (London: GSMA, 2020), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GSMA-The-Mobile-Gender-Gap-Report-2020.pdf; GSMA, Accelerating Digital Literacy: Empowering Women to Use the Mobile Internet (London: GSMA, 2015), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/DigitalLiteracy_v6_WEB_Singles.pdf; Oliver Rowntree, The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2018 (London: GSMA, February 2018), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GSMA_The_Mobile_Gender_Gap_Report_2018_32pp_WEBv7.pdf.
• expanded use of video and graphic content Lolita Moorena, Simone Schaner, and Nadia Setiabudi, “Improving Women’s Digital Literacy as an Avenue for Financial Inclusion,” Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) (Cambridge, MA: MIT, J-PAL, November 23, 2020), https://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/11-23-20/improving-womens-digital-literacy-avenue-financial-inclusion.
• credit digitally for their businesses Women’s World Banking, Unlocking Credit for Women-Owned Enterprises in Southeast Asia through Value Chain Digitization (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2020), http://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2020_Unlocking_Credit_Report.pdf.
• interactive voice recognition technology Atul Tandon, remarks made during Credit Suisse Financial Inclusion virtual panel discussion, June 8, 2020.
• move forward with a financial product or service International Finance Corporation (IFC), “Quick Tips for Digital Financial Service Providers to Reach Women,” https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/6f91a9e4-4b6c-4398-8268-d0bb443fa2db/Quick+Tips.pdf?MOD=AJPERES; Anna Zakrzewski, Kedra Newsom Reeves, Michael Kahlich, et al., “Managing the Next Decade of Women’s Wealth” (Boston: Boston Consulting Group, April 9, 2020), https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/managing-next-decade-women-wealth.
• where they can turn for assistance IFC, “Quick Tips”; Kantar, Winning Over Women: A Commercial Imperative for Financial Service (London: Financial Alliance for Women, 2017), https://financialallianceforwomen.org/download/winning-women-commercial-imperative-financial-services.
• important life moment such as buying a home Pooneh Baghai, Olivia Howard, Lakshmi Prakash, et al., “Women as the Next Wave of Growth in US Wealth Management,” (New York: McKinsey & Co., July 29, 2020), https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/women-as-the-next-wave-of-growth-in-us-wealth-management.
• trust in and confidence with the service Claire Pénicaud Scharwatt and Elisa Minischetti, Reaching Half of the Market: Women and Mobile Money (London: GSMA, September 2014), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014_DI_Reach-half-of-the-market-Women-and-mobile-money.pdf.
• who will treat them with respect Kate Webster, “How to Understand the Customer Journey through Cognitive Interviews,” interview by Karen Miller, Women’s World Banking Podcast, May 29, 2019, https://soundcloud.com/user-220762778/how-to-better-understand-the-customer-journey-through-cognitive-interviews.
• call blocking and privacy settings on their cell-phones Aakanksha Thakur, Samveet Sahoo, Prabir Barooah, et al., “Agency Banking: How Female Agents Make a Difference,” Microsave Consulting, April 5, 2016, http://blog.microsave.net/2016/04/05/agency-banking-how-female-agents-make-a-difference.
• cross-sell other financial products to savings account customers Women’s World Banking, “Pilot Evaluation Findings,” PowerPoint presentation to Bank of Baroda management, December 2, 2020.
• expanded from 70 to 148 since 2014 Nika Naghavi, State of the Industry: Report on Mobile Money 2019 (London: GSMA, 2020), https://www.gsma.com/sotir.
• higher activity rates than their male counterparts Orla Ryan, “Harnessing the Power of Agents to Drive Female Inclusion,” Mobile for Development (blog), GMSA, March 29, 2019, https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/blog/harnessing-the-power-of-agents-to-drive-female-financial-inclusion.
• 70 percent of the franchise agents are women Mondato, “Mobile Money’s Secret Agent,” January 25, 2016, https://blog.mondato.com/women.
• cash-in/cash-out location for the entire village Allison Kahn, “Helping to Birth New Life—and Financial Possibilities—for Families in Indonesia,” Future of Work, Mastercard Newsroom, October 27, 2020, https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2020/helping-to-birth-new-life-and-financial-possibilities-for-families-in-indonesia.
• to on-board customers and answer questions Women’s World Banking application to Fintech Innovation Challenge 2020, June 19, 2020.
• can all be leveraged for greater inclusion Pénicaud Scharwatt and Minischetti, Reaching Half; IFC, “Quick Tips.”
• from 17 percent in 2010 to 36 percent in 2018 “Reaching Half the Market: Women and Mobile Money—The Example of Telesom in Somaliland,” Mobile for Development (blog), GSMA, April 27, 2015, https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/region/sub-saharan-africa-region/reaching-half-of-the-market-women-and-mobile-money-the-example-of-telesom-in-somaliland.
• products and services designed by men for men Jessica Clempner, Women in Financial Services 2020: A Panoramic Approach (New York: Oliver Wyman, 2019), https://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/v2/publications/2019/November/Women-In-Financial-Services-2020.pdf.
• improved customer satisfaction ratings from male customers Women’s World Banking, Making Women’s Work Visible: Finance for Rural Women (New York: Women’s World Banking, November 2014), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Making-Womens-Work-Visible-Rural-Finance-WomensWorldBanking.pdf.
• used the information in their managerial decision-making Cristina Palihé, “Sex-Disaggregated Supply-Side Data Relevant to Financial Inclusion,” Discussion Paper IDB-DP-470 (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, January 2018) https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Sex-disaggregated-Supply-side-Data-Relevant-to-Financial-Inclusion.pdf.
• compared with 46 percent of male customers “Kantar Study Shows U.S. Banks Can Increase Their Share of Deposits by 16.5% through Improving Their Customer Experience: USAA, Regions Bank and Chase Lead in Kantar’s New CX+ Index,” Businesswire, December 11, 2018, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181211005619/en/Kantar-Study-Shows-U.S.-Banks-Increase-Share.
• build higher savings to income ratios than men IFC, “Quick Tips”; Customer Service Profiles, “Customer Experience for Women: What Banks Need to Know,” last modified February 2017, https://www.csp.com/customer-experience-for-women-what-banks-need-to-know/#.YCr7mi2ZN0s.
• business services that were not available to them as retail customers Women’s World Banking, “Custom Product Bundles Can Deepen Financial Inclusion for Vietnam’s Economically Active Women” (New York: Women’s World Banking, August 20, 2018), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights-and-impact/custom-product-bundles-can-deepen-financial-inclusion-for-vietnams-economically-active-women.
• selling various cell-phone and mobile money products GSMA The Gender Analysis and Identification Toolkit: Estimating Subscriber Gender Using Machine Learning (London: GSMA August 2018), https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GSMA-Gender-Analysis-and-Identification-Report-GAIT-August-2018.pdf.
• including the country’s 100 million unbanked men and women Aniqa Sandhu, interviews by Mary Ellen Iskenderian, March 8, 2019, and July 3, 2020.
• opportunity to expand financial inclusion Women’s World Banking, Nigeria and Pakistan: Two Approaches to Removing Barriers to Digital Financial Services for Women, case studies prepared for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018.
• 12.4 million subscribers to its mobile wallet Women’s World Banking, “Bringing Women into Digital Finance,” PowerPoint presentation for JazzCash management, May 2015.
• Sandhu had been named chief digital officer Sandhu, interviews.
• how to use it to send and receive payments Sandhu, interviews.
• the documentation necessary to open a cell-phone account on their own Sandhu, interviews.
• a unique personal identifier that the phone offered her Women’s World Banking, “Bringing Women into Digital Finance.”
• if it was going to be taken seriously Sandhu, interviews.
• usage patterns told a slightly different story Sandhu, interviews.
• how Jazz went about acquiring new women customers Women’s World Banking, “Bringing Women into Digital Finance.”
• behavioral differences related to sending and acting on referrals Women’s World Banking, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• an essential element in winning women’s business Women’s World Banking, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• providing a male agent with her cell-phone number in order to open an account Sandhu, interviews.
• “That is why we say the woman is a thief” Women’s World Banking, Jazz clients and potential clients, interviews, 2017–2018.
• doubt that they would obtain permission from their male family members to use an agent Women’s World Banking, Jazz clients, interviews.
• women retailers known as Guddi Bajis or “good sisters” Women’s World Banking, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• showcase the economic benefits of being financially included Women’s World Banking, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• top performers generated three times that amount Women’s World Banking, Jazz application for the GSMA Award for the Best Mobile Product, Application or Service for Women in Emerging Markets, 2016.
• “They are unquestioned. They are the default” Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Abrams, 2019).
• women loan officers were more successful in collecting from both male and female clients Women’s World Banking, internal project findings from the Organizational Gender Assessment of ASA, a microfinance institution in Bangladesh, 2010.
• 719,000 new jobs, 73 percent of them for women İpek İlkkaracan, Kijon Kim, and Tolga Kaya, The Impact of Public Investment in Social Care Services on Employment, Gender Equality, and Poverty: The Turkish Case (Istanbul: Istanbul Technical University and Levy Economics Institute, August 2015), http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/rpr_8_15.pdf.
• sex-disaggregated indicators on access to and use of both formal and informal financial services Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• efficacy of specific policy initiatives to address gender inequality Global Banking Alliance for Women et al., Measuring Women’s Financial Inclusion: The Value of Sex-Disaggregated Data (New York: Global Banking Alliance for Women, October 2016), https://data2x.org/resource-center/measuring-womens-financial-inclusion-the-value-of-sex-disaggregated-data.
• Rarer still is account-level data disaggregated by sex Global Banking Alliance for Women et al., Measuring Women’s Financial Inclusion.
• only 60 of the 189 countries surveyed report sex-disaggregated data International Monetary Fund, Financial Access Survey: 2020 Trends and Developments (Washington, DC: IMF, 2020).
• women are disproportionately represented among those without this fundamental tool World Bank, Identification for Development (ID4D) 2019 Annual Report (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019), http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/566431581578116247/pdf/Identification-for-Development-ID4D-2019-Annual-Report.pdf.
• lack a national identification card or similar identification credential Lucia Hanmer and Marina Elefante, Achieving Universal Access to ID: Gender-based Legal Barriers against Women and Good Practice Reforms (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32474.
• “lack of documents” as a reason for not having a bank account Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• obtain a birth certificate for them Hanmer and Elefante, Achieving Universal Access.
• with no legal form of identification at all Olivia White, Anu Madgavkar, James Manyika, et al., Digital Identification: A Key to Inclusive Growth (Washington, DC: McKinsey Global Institute, April 17, 2019), https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-identification-a-key-to-inclusive-growth.
• verified through a fingerprint scan White et al., Digital Identification.

Chapter 3: From Invisibility to Agency

• to believe she has the right to choose Anju Malhotra, Sidney Ruth Schuler, and Carol Boender, Measuring Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International Development (Washington, DC: World Bank, June 28, 2002).
• “for people to live the lives they want” Naila Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment,” in Discussing Women’s Empowerment: Theory and Practice, ed. Anne Sisask, SIDA Studies 3 (Stockholm: Swedish International Development Agency, 2001).
• her capacity to make choices is limited Naila Kabeer, “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal 1,” Gender & Development 13, no. 1 (2005), 13–24, https://doi.org/10.1080/13552070512331332273.
• the woman herself must be a significant actor in that process of change Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements.”
• “where this ability was previously denied to them” Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements,” 437.
• without “punishingly high costs” Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements,” 460.
• strongest linkage to the “trifecta” of women’s economic empowerment “Women’s Economic Empowerment: Our Approach,” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, https://ww2.gatesfoundation.org/equal-is-greater/our-approach.
• her negotiating power as household decisions are made Cheryl Doss, “Intrahousehold Bargaining and Resource Allocation in Developing Countries,” Policy Research Working Paper 6337 (Washington, DC: World Bank, Capacity Building Unit, January 2013) http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/701071468155969077/pdf/wps6337.pdf.
• material, cognitive, perceptual, and relational Marty Chen and Simeen Mahmud, “Assessing Change in Women’s Lives: A Conceptual Framework,” Working Paper 2, BRAC-ICDDR,B Joint Research Project (Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1995).
• move beyond her day-to-day existence and begin to plan for the future Women’s World Banking, “Empowerment Framework,” proprietary material, 2015.
• 18 percent of the land across Latin America Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena Léon, “The Gender Asset Gap: Land in Latin America,” World Development 31, no. 6 (June 2003): 925–947, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(03)00046-9.
• combination of agency plus resources Doss, “Intrahousehold Bargaining and Resource Allocation in Developing Countries.”
• with fewer assets accumulated after marriage World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2018 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29498.
• resettlement and continued livelihood of genocide survivors Elizabeth Powley, “Rwanda: The Impact of Women Legislators on Policy Outcomes Affecting Children and Families,” working paper, Division of Policy and Planning (New York: UNICEF, December 2006), https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Rwanda%5B1%5D.pdf.
• acquire a security interest in an asset in return for a loan World Bank, Secured Transactions, Collateral Registries and Movable Asset-Based Financing (Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank, November 2019), http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/pt/193261570112901451/pdf/Knowledge-Guide.pdf; Nidhiya Menon and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, “How Access to Credit Affects Self-Employment: Differences by Gender during India’s Rural Banking Reform,” Journal of Development Studies 47, no. 1 (2011): 48–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220381003706486.
• strongly linked to the laws governing marital property Mala Htun, Francesca Jensenius, and Jami Nelson-Nuñez, “Gender-Discriminatory Laws and Women’s Economic Agency,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 26, no. 2 (Summer 2019): 193–222, https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxy042.
• to register property jointly or in a woman’s name World Bank, Women’s Financial Inclusion and the Law (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018), http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/610311522241094348/Financial-Inclusion.pdf; World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2018.
• for women heads of household and rural women Claire Felter and Danielle Renwick, “Colombia’s Civil Conflict,” (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, last modified January 11, 2017), https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/colombias-civil-conflict; Jamille Bigio, Rachel Vogelstein, and Anne Connell, “Women’s Participation in Peace Processes: Colombia,” Council on Foreign Relations, December 15, 2017, https://www.cfr.org/blog/womens-participation-peace-processes-colombia.
• women will not have the skills or the confidence for that full engagement Women’s World Banking, Empowering Women in a Journey Towards Digital Financial Capability (New York: Women’s World Banking, March 2021), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights-and-impact/empowering-women-on-a-journey-towards-digital-financial-capability.
• “has performed abysmally on the governance front” Naila Kabeer, Simeen Mahmud, and Jairo Guillermo Isaza Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development and Democracy in Bangladesh,” IDS Working Paper 343 (Brighton: University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies, June 2010), 7, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2040-0209.2010.00343_2.x.
• “once a strong presence within the NGO sector, have declined rapidly” Kabeer, Mahmud, and Guillermo Isaza Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• for fear of creating dependency Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• such as voting or campaigning in local and national elections Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• they had a surprisingly strong economic impact as well Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• significant impact on their holdings of productive assets Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• “bargain for higher wages or a fairer price for their labor and products” Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development,” 40.
• acquiring the “intangible skills of economic literacy, negotiating capacity and rights awareness” Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development,” 40.
• apart from the material financial support Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• where the members worked together in mixed gender groups Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• were also members of other NGOs Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development.”
• “That is what they are concerned about” Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development,” 41.
• “will not overcome the barriers to economic advancement” Kabeer, Mahmud, and Castro, “NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development,” 46.
• broader human capabilities of confidence, self-esteem and the ability to plan for the future Nalia Kabeer, Gender, Livelihood Capabilities and Women’s Economic Empowerment: Reviewing Evidence over the Life Course (London: Gender and Adolescence, Global Evidence, September 2018), https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/90462/1/Kabeer__gender-livelihood-capabilities.pdf.
• “the new relationships they had forged through the SHGs” Naila Kabeer, “Randomized Control Trials and Qualitative Evaluations of a Multifaceted Programme for Women in Extreme Poverty: Empirical Findings and Methodological Reflections,” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 20, no. 2 (2019): 197–217, https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2018.1536696.
• “The capabilities were the only things that lasted in these women’s lives” Naila Kabeer, interview by the author, October 27, 2020.
• will extend into the digital sphere Sarah Gammage, Aslihan Kes, Liliane Winograd, et al., Gender and Digital Financial Inclusion: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know? (Washington, DC, International Center for Research on Women, October 2017), https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Gender-and-digital-financial-inclusion.pdf.
• when their proximity to a bank branch also increases William Jack and Tavneet Suri, “Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA,” NBER Working Paper 16721 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2011), https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w16721/w16721.pdf.
• a male chaperone accompany them on errands, including visits to the bank Erika Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, et al., “On Her Own Account: Can Strengthening Women’s Financial Control Boost Female Labor Supply?,” working paper (Boston, MAL Harvard Business School, November 15, 2016), https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/Rigol%20Female%20Accounts_3f8a5d0f-f76b-4a2e-bae7-363cab93f737.pdf.
• gender norms may have compromised their negotiating leverage Jenny C. Aker, Rachid Boumnijel, Amanda McClelland, et al., “Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 65, no. 1 (October 2016): 1–37, https://doi.org/10.1086/687578.
• power dynamic between a woman and her spouse Aker et al., “Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs.”
• focused on microcredit Lucia Hanmer and Jeni Klugman, “Exploring Women’s Agency and Empowerment in Developing Countries: Where Do We Stand?,” Feminist Economics 22, no. 1 (January 2016): 237–263, https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2015.1091087.
• social, cultural, and normative barriers and enablers Lotus McDougal, Jeni Klugman, Nabamallika Dehingia, et al., “Financial Inclusion and Intimate Partner Violence: What Does the Evidence Suggest?,” PLoS One 14, no. 10 (October 2019), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223721.
• leaving women more vulnerable to intimate partner violence Beatriz Armendáriz and Nigiel Roome, “Gender Empowerment in Microfinance,” MPRA Paper 31040 (Munich: Munich Personal RePEc Archive, June 2008), https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/213927434.pdf; Naila Kabeer, “Conflicts over Credit: Re-evaluating the Empowerment Potential of Loans to Women in Rural Bangladesh,” World Development 29, no. 1 (January 2001): 63–84, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(00)00081-4.
• gender cap in cell-phone ownership and usage McDougal et al., “Intimate Partner Violence.”
• rally related to HIV awareness Julia C. Kim, Charlotte H. Watts, James R. Hargreaves, et al., “Understanding the Impact of a Microfinance-Based Intervention on Women’s Empowerment and the Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa,” American Journal of Public Health 97, no. 10 (October 2007): 1794–1802, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2006.095521.
• deciding to leave Kim et al., “Understanding the Impact of a Microfinance-Based Intervention.”
• a deterrent to further violence McDougal et al., “Intimate Partner Violence.”
• deemed the results inconclusive Margaret E. Tankard, Elizabeth Levy Paluck, and Deborah A. Prentice, “The Effect of a Savings Intervention on Women’s Intimate Partner Violence Victimization: Heterogenous Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia,” BMC Women’s Health 19, no. 17 (January 2019), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-019-0717-2.
• women were able to seek higher-paying jobs CEO of Fundación WWB Colombia, discussion with the author, 2018.
• COVID-19 relief initiatives UN Women, “The Shadow Pandemic: Violence against Women During COVID-19,” News and Events section, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response/violence-against-women-during-covid-19.
• the means to flee abusive situations Anita Raj, Jay G. Silverman, Jeni Klugman, et al., “Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Economic Empowerment on Risk for Intimate Partner Violence among Married Women in Rural Maharashtra, India,” Social Science & Medicine 196 (January 2018): 197–203, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.042.
• jeopardizing her ability to obtain and keep a job National Network to End Domestic Violence, “About Financial Abuse,” https://nnedv.org/content/about-financial-abuse.
• “keep a roof over her head” Brit Marling, “Harvey Weinstein and the Economics of Consent,” Atlantic, October 23, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/harvey-weinstein-and-the-economics-of-consent/543618.

Part II: Making the Business Case

• looking for convenient, reliable financial services they can afford Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• enter the financial services sector McKinsey & Co., McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2020: A Test of Resilience (New York: McKinsey & Co., December 9, 2020), https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/global-banking-annual-review#.
• environmental, social, and governance issues McKinsey & Co., McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2020.
• provide immediate relief in partnership with governments Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 (Chicago: Edelman, 2020), https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/440941/Trust%20Barometer%202020/2020%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report.pdf?utm_campaign=Global:%20Trust%20Barometer%202020; Edelman, Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 Spring Update: Trust and the Covid-19 Pandemic (Chicago: Edelman, 2020), https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2020-05/2020%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Spring%20Update%20Financial%20Services.pdf.
• $40 billion in additional revenue Bank of New York Mellon and United Nations Foundation, Powering Potential: Increasing Women’s Access to Financial Products and Services (New York: BNY Mellon, 2018), https://bnymellonlive-bypass.cphostaccess.com/_global-assets/pdf/our-thinking/powering-potential.pdf.
• $30 billion in new net interest income Jessica Clempner, Women in Financial Services 2020: A Panoramic Approach (New York: Oliver Wyman, 2019), https://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/v2/publications/2019/November/Women-In-Financial-Services-2020.pdf.
• guaranteed access to credit Women’s World Banking, “Pilot Evaluation Findings,” PowerPoint presentation to Bank of Baroda Management, December 2, 2020.
• safety cushion Sophie Theis, Giudy Rusconi, Elwyn Panggabean, et al., Delivering on the Potential of Digitized G2P: Driving Women’s Financial Inclusions through Indonesia’s Program Keluarga Harapan (New York: Women’s World Banking, August 2020), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/August2020_G2P_Report.pdf.
• “to recast their contract with society” McKinsey & Co., McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2020.

Chapter 4: Making the Business Case for Building Wealth

• protect some of that money for school fees KWFT Focus Group, Women’s World Banking youth savings research, 2012.
• every year of secondary school that she completes Shannon Hodge, “Six Ways in Which Educating Girls Benefits Their Wider Community,” The Circle, August 30, 2017, https://thecircle.ngo/six-positive-impacts-educating-girls; “Girls’ Education” (Washington, DC: World Bank, last modified March 8, 2021), https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/girlseducation.
• greater risk of dying before the age of five World Bank, “Educating Girls, Ending Child Marriage” (Washington, DC: World Bank, August 24, 2017), https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2017/08/22/educating-girls-ending-child-marriage.
• ended up burdened by debt they couldn’t repay CAMFED CEO in off-the-record interview by the author, June 12, 2014.
• the greatest chance of absorbing the material CAMFED CEO, interview.
• but in order to contribute to their families Ryan Newton and Anjali Banthia, “Bright Like a Star: The Promise of Savings for Girls in India,” International Banker, August 11, 2014, https://internationalbanker.com/banking/bright-like-star-promise-savings-girls-india; Women’s World Banking, Building a Sustainable Youth Savings Proposition: Lessons from Banco ADOPEM (New York: Women’s World Banking, January 2015), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/WomensWorldBanking_BuildingSustainableYouthSavingsProposition_LessonsBancoADOPEM.pdf.
• annual incremental revenue estimated at $15 billion Bank of New York Mellon and United Nations Foundation, Powering Potential: Increasing Women’s Access to Financial Products and Services (New York: BNY Mellon, 2018), https://bnymellonlive-bypass.cphostaccess.com/_global-assets/pdf/our-thinking/powering-potential.pdf.
• expertly sliced okazi ready for sale Ime Isaac Akpe, Diamond Bank client, interview by Women’s World Banking researcher, 2012.
• usually around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Akpe, interview.
• below the international poverty line of $1.90 a day World Bank, Poverty and Equity Brief: Africa Western and Central—Nigeria (Washington, DC: World Bank, October 2020), https://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/poverty/987B9C90-CB9F-4D93-AE8C-750588BF00QA/AM2020/Global_POVEQ_NGA.pdf.
• to serve unbanked and underbanked clients as well Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project,” internal project preparation materials, 2012–2018; Women’s World Banking, Diamond Bank Storms the Market: A BETA Way to Save (New York: Women’s World Banking, March 5, 2014), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Womens-World-Banking-A-BETA-Way-To-Save.pdf.
• bring more people into the formal financial system Central Bank of Nigeria, Circular to All Banks and Other Financial Institutions: Introduction of Three-Tiered Know Your Customer (KYC) Requirements (Abuja, Nigeria: Central Bank of Nigeria, January 18, 2013), https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2013/ccd/3%20tiered%20kyc%20requirements.pdf.
• opening a financial account remains out of reach Alliance for Financial Inclusion, KYC Innovations, Financial Inclusion and Integrity in Selected AFI Member Countries (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: AFI, March 2019), https://www.afi-global.org/sites/default/files/publications/2019-03/KYC-Innovations-Financial-Inclusion-Integrity-Selected-AFI-Member-Countries.pdf.
• check the personal information she provided against official databases Central Bank of Nigeria, Circular to All Banks and Other Financial Institutions (Know Your Customer).
• a savings account rather than starting with a lending product Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project.”
• everyone bristled at the fees charged by the coordinator Women’s World Banking, Diamond Bank Storms the Market.
• conditions that would let Diamond Bank take advantage of them Women’s World Banking, Diamond Bank Storms the Market.
• at a higher rate than those with male Friends Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project”
• “The money slips through your fingers” Akpe, interview.
• saving an impressive 60 percent of their income through informal means Women’s World Banking, Diamond Bank Storms the Market.
• cited as one of its most valuable assets Access Bank and Diamond Bank, Access Bank-Diamond Bank Merger Update: Creating Nigeria and Africa’s Largest Retail Bank, January 2019, https://www.accessbankplc.com/AccessBankGroup/media/Investors/Results-2019/Access-Bank-Diamond-Bank-Investor-Presentation.pdf.
• only to see its value erode Macrotrends, “Nigeria GDP Growth Rate 1961–2021,” https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/NGA/nigeria/gdp-growth-rate; Macrotrends, “Nigeria Inflation Rate 1960–2021,” https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/NGA/nigeria/inflation-rate-cpi.
• making decisions on how to use their business’s profits and in making household purchases Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project Outcomes Research,” internal project research.
• 41 percent of annual wages, compared to 23 percent for men PR Newswire, “Men v Women: The Economic and Financial Divide 2013,” press release provided by Halifax, UK, Cision, March 28, 2013, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/men-v-women-the-economic-and-financial-divide-2013-200468241.html.
• women’s savings accounts grow at three times the rate of men’s savings accounts in the past decade Financial Alliance for Women, “The Opportunity / Untapped Potential,” https://financialallianceforwomen.org/the-opportunity/#untappedpotential.
• to incentivize opening more women’s accounts Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project.”
• savings balances outside the formal financial system World Bank, The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2018 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/29654/LDB-%20FinInclusion2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
• from these informal financial relationships Julie Zollman, Kenya Financial Diaries: Shilingi Kwa Shilingi—The Financial Lives of the Poor (Nairobi, Kenya: Financial Sector Deepening Kenya, August 2014), https://www.findevgateway.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/kenya_financial_diaries_shilingi_kwa_shilingi_-_the_financial_lives_of_the_poor.pdf.
• they saved the windfall either in cash at home or in a ROSCA Jonathan Robinson, “Limited Insurance within the Household: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya,” American Economics Journal: Applied Economics 4, no. 4 (October 2012): 140–164, https://doi.org/10.1257/app.4.4.140.
• reported by both men and women to be the household’s primary saver Simone Shaner, “The Cost of Convenience? Transaction Costs, Bargaining Power, and Savings Account Use in Kenya,” Journal of Human Resources 52, no. 4 (Fall 2017): 919–945, https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.52.4.0815-7350R1.
• distance to a financial service provider as major impediments Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• more likely to use the bank accounts for various financial activities Shawn Cole, Thomas Sampson, and Bilal Zia, “Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?,” Journal of Finance 66, no. 6 (December 2011): 1933–1967, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2011.01696.x.
• a far greater impact on women’s ability to save and invest Pascaline Dupas and Jonathan Robinson, “Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya,” American Economic Journal 5, no. 1 (January 2013): 163–192, https://doi.org/10.1257/app.5.1.163.
• lifted one million people out of poverty Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 9, 2016): 1288–1292, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.
• consumption levels by 7 percent in response to these income shocks William Jack and Tavneet Suri, “Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA,” NBER Working Paper No. 16721 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2011), https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w16721/w16721.pdf.
• three times more likely to save for health and other emergencies than non-users Serge Ky, Clovis Rugemintwari, and Alain Sauviat, “Does Mobile Money Affect Saving Behaviour? Evidence from a Developing Country,” Journal of African Economies 27, no. 3 (June 2018): 285–320, https://doi.org/10.1093/jafeco/ejx028.
• women who received the benefits in cash Jenny C. Aker, “Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 65, no. 1 (October 2016): 1–37, https://doi.org/10.1086/687578.
• not seeing their BETA friend frequently enough Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project.”
• a sensitivity to fees Tomoko Harigaya, “Effects of Digitization on Financial Behaviors: Experimental Evidence from the Philippines,” September 4, 2020, https://tomokoharigaya.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/harogaya_mfs_sep2020.pdf.
• secured the loan using a portion of her BETA savings balance as collateral Women’s World Banking, “BETA Project.”
• insufficient to accumulate a lump sum Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, et al., Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 124–127.
• at any retail bank in India Sudhinder Chowhan and J. C. Pande, “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana: A Giant Leap towards Financial Inclusion,” International Journal of Research in Management and Business Studies 1, no. 4 (October–December 2014): 19–22, https://ijrmbs.com/vol1issue4/sudhinder.pdf.
• a tremendous success in terms of account opening “Jan Dhan Yojana Makes It to Guinness World Records, 11.5 cr Jan Dhan Accounts Opened,” Economic Times, last updated January 21, 2015, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/jan-dhan-yojna-makes-it-to-guinness-world-records-11-5-cr-jan-dhan-accounts-opened/articleshow/45955376.cms.
• that in aggregate hold a total deposit balance of $14 billion Chowhan and Pande, “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana .”
• accounts have seen little to no use Anand Adhikari, “Jan Dhan Yojana Data Shows Rural Area Residents Using Bank Accounts More Often,” Business Today, November 20, 2019, https://www.businesstoday.in/sectors/banks/zero-balance-dormant-bank-accounts-under-jan-dhan-yojana-on-a-steady-decline/story/390664.html.
• an overdraft facility up to roughly $130 Chowhan and Pande, “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana .”
• a credit facility to incentivize even deeper engagement Women’s World Banking, “Pilot Evaluation Findings,” PowerPoint presentation to Bank of Baroda Management, December 2, 2020.
• health insurance policy in addition to their microloan Women’s World Banking, Gender Performance Indicators 2.0: How Well Are We Serving Women? (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2015), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/GenderPerformanceIndicators_2015_WomensWorldBanking.pdf.
• 252 million women paying school fees all in cash Demirgüç-Kunt et al., The Global Findex Database 2017.
• in thirty countries remittances make up 10 percent or more of GDP Migration Data Portal, “Remittances,” updated February 23, 2021, https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/remittances.
• training resulted in significant increases in recipients’ savings balances Women’s World Banking, “Hatton Remittances,” internal project preparation and implementation materials, 2010–2011.
• “net profit attributable to the future relationship with a customer” Tanaya Kilara, Barbara Magnoni, and Emily Zimmerman, The Business Case for Youth Savings: A Framework, CGAP Focus Note 96 (Washington, DC: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, 2014), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/Focus-Note-Business-Case-for-Youth-Savings-A-Framework-Jul-2014.pdf.
• successful and loyal bank employees on graduation Women’s World Banking and Nike Foundation, Banking on Youth: A Guide to Developing Innovative Youth Savings Programs, 2012, revised 2014, https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Womens-World-Banking-Banking-On-Youth-2014.pdf.
• compared to the bank’s already high average rate of 77 percent Women’s World Banking, Building a Sustainable Youth Savings Proposition.
• served to attract new, younger clients to the bank Women’s World Banking and Nike, Banking on Youth; “Diamond Bank Excites Youths with Dreamville, Game-Enabled Digital Savings Platform,” Daily Post—Nigeria News, March 16, 2018, https://dailypost.ng/2018/03/16/diamond-bank-excites-youths-dreamville-game-enabled-digital-savings-platform; Women’s World Banking, “Diamond Youth Savings” internal project preparation and implementation materials, 2012–2018.

Chapter 5: Making the Business Case for Access to Capital

• customer lifetime value of a woman client can be higher than that of a man Women’s World Banking, “She Counts 2019: Driving Savings—Effective Practices in Product Bundling” (New York: Women’s World Banking, December 20, 2019), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights-and-impact/she-counts-driving-savings-effective-practices-in-product-bundling.
• further growth will only exacerbate existing economic inequality Thorsten Beck and Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, “Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Access to Finance as a Growth Constraint,” Journal of Banking & Finance 30, no. 11 (November 2006): 2931–3256, https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-banking-and-finance/vol/30/issue/11; World Bank, “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Finance,” https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/smefinance.
• smaller companies have the highest rate of employment growth, followed by medium-sized firms World Bank, “Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Finance.”
• capacity to expand its number of permanent employees Meghana Ayyagari, Pedro Juarros, Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, et al., “Access to Finance and Job Growth: Firm-Level Evidence across Developing Countries,” Policy Research Working Paper 7604 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24146.
• even fewer bank loans were made to smaller businesses Tracey Durner and Liat Shetret, Understanding Bank De-risking and Its Effects on Financial Inclusion: An Exploratory Study (Oxford: Oxfam, November 2015), https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/rr-bank-de-risking-181115-en_0.pdf.
• assets valued between $3 million and $15 million World Bank, SME Finance Forum, and International Finance Corporation, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises: Economic Indicators (MSME-EI) Analysis Note (Washington, DC: World Bank, December 2019), https://www.smefinanceforum.org/data-sites/msme-country-indicators.
• makes an accurate calculation of the financing gap extremely difficult, if not impossible Peer Stein, Oya Pinar Ardic, and Martin Hommes, “Closing the Credit Gap for Formal and Informal Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises” (Washington, DC: International Finance Corporation, August 2013), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21728.
• 1.3 times the amount of lending currently being done SME Finance Forum, “MSME Finance Gap,” International Finance Forum, World Bank Group, https://www.smefinanceforum.org/data-sites/msme-finance-gap.
• unable to tap the financing they need to grow SME Finance Forum, “MSME Finance Gap.”
• heavier collateral requirements than men Alexander Muravyev, Dorothea Schäfer, and Oleksandr Talavera, “Entrepreneurs’ Gender and Financial Constraints: Evidence from International Data,” DIW Discussion Paper 706 (Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, 2007), http://hdl.handle.net/10419/27231.
• 4.5 percent of loans to both men and women are overdue at ninety days International Finance Corporation, Women-Owned SMEs: A Business Opportunity for Financial Institutions (Washington, DC: International Finance Corporation, 2014), https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/44b004b2-ed46-48fc-8ade-aa0f485069a1/WomenOwnedSMes+Report-Final.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=kiiZZDZ.
• obstacles to banks’ provision of credit to MSMEs Ratna Sahay, Martin Čihák, Papa N’Diaye, et al., “Financial Inclusion: Can It Meet Multiple Macroeconomic Goals?,” IMF Staff Discussion Note SDN/15/17 (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, September 2015), https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1517.pdf.
• assets used as collateral by developing country banks World Bank, Secured Transactions, Collateral Registries and Movable Asset-Based Financing (Washington, DC: World Bank / International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, November 2019), http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/pt/193261570112901451/pdf/Knowledge-Guide.pdf.
• leveraged for badly needed growth capital Mehnaz Safavian, Heywood Fleisig, and Jevgenijs Steinbuks, “Unlocking Dead Capital: How Reforming Collateral Laws Improves Access to Finance,” Viewpoint: Public Policy for the Private Sector, Note 307 (Washington, DC: World Bank, March 2006), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11190.
• who owns or has a security interest in an asset World Bank, Secured Transactions, Collateral Registries and Movable Asset-Based Financing.
• the strongest impact of these positive changes was felt by small business Inessa Love, Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, and Sandeep Singh, “Collateral Registries for Movable Assets: Does Their Introduction Spur Firms’ Access to Bank Finance?,” Policy Research Working Paper 6477 (Washington, DC: World Bank, Development Research Group, June 2013), http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/731881468314344960/pdf/WPS6477.pdf.
• particularly well suited to serving MSMEs World Bank, Secured Transactions, Collateral Registries and Movable Asset-Based Financing.
• that lender’s rights in a secured transaction Simeon Djankov, Caralee McLiesh, and Andrei Shleifer, “Private Credit in 129 Countries,” Journal of Financial Economics 84, no. 2 (May 2007): 299–329, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2006.03.004.
• lending to the private sector increased by at least 47.5 percent Michael Turner and Robin Varghese, Economic Impacts of Payment Reporting Participation in Latin America (Durham, NC: Political and Economic Research Council, May 2007), https://www.perc.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Latin_America.pdf.
• can be an important stepping-stone to access credit World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2018 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29498.
• jumped by 21 percent World Bank Development Research Group, Better Than Cash Alliance, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Women’s World Banking, Digital Financial Solutions to Advance Women’s Economic Participation, prepared for the Turkish G20 Presidency (Washington, DC: World Bank, November 16, 2015), https://www.gpfi.org/publications/digital-financial-solutions-advance-womens-economic-participation.
• 282 branches throughout the country KCB Group, 2019 Integrated Report & Financial Statements (Nairobi, Kenya: KCB Group, 2019), https://kcbgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KCB-Group-Plc-2019-Integrated-Report-and-Financial-Statements-min.pdf.
• differentiate itself in an increasingly crowded market Women’s World Banking, “KCB Project,” internal project preparation and implementation materials, 2016–2019.
• to the country’s 300,000 to 400,000 registered MSMEs Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs: Creating a Better Banking Experience for Women-Led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Kenya (New York: Women’s World Banking, November 2020), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/MSME_Report_2020.pdf.
• a lack of external funding was the greatest obstacle to their growth Government of the Republic of Kenya, Kenya Vision 2030 (Nairobi, Kenya: Government of the Republic of Kenya, 2007), https://vision2030.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Vision-2030-Popular-Version.pdf.
• compared with just 24 percent of men-led firms International Trade Centre, Promoting SME Competitiveness in Kenya: Targeted Solutions for Inclusive Growth (Geneva: International Trade Centre, September 2019), https://www.intracen.org/uploadedFiles/intracenorg/Content/Publications/Kenya_SME_Comp_final_low_res.pdf.
• how they differed from the lending needs of retail or corporate customers Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• build a residential real estate business Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4,” transcript, April 9, 2016.
• youngest children once they finished college Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 3,” transcript, April 8, 2016.
• Issues of special importance to entrepreneurial women Women’s World Banking, “KCB Project.”
• “and I acquired them all through loans” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7,” transcript, April 11, 2016.
• “with business you have to keep growing your money” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7.”
• Extended through their husbands rather than directly Michael Aliber, “The Importance of Informal Finance in Promoting Decent Work among Informal Operators: A Comparative Study of Uganda and India,” Social Finance Working Paper 66 (Geneva: International Labour Office, 2015).
• maintain any semblance of financial independence Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 5,” transcript, April 9, 2016; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7.”
• “keep it and buy more equipment” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 3.”
• issues of ownership and independence at play for the women Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 5”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7.”
• “even if you are bored with him, you have to stay” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4.”
• use the vehicles as security for business loans Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 5”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7.”
• “it helps me to buy things for my children” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4.”
• “That is my voice, that is my strength” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4.”
• the membership privilege most valued by men and women alike Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 3”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 5”; Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7.”
• “financially it’s like zero work” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 3.”
• other event services as a package Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4.”
• “Oh, I saw [her] at the bank today” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 4.”
• “I want to be treated like the boss I am” Women’s World Banking, “KCB Focus Group 7.”
• the importance of follow-up Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs: Creating a Better Banking Experience for Women-Led Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Kenya (New York: Women’s World Banking, November 2020), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/MSME_Report_2020.pdf.
• larger businesses, employing more than ten people Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• implement new practices and improve their managerial skills Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• sell it to cover the unpaid loan amount Women’s World Banking, discussions with KCB management, April 2016.
• settle an unpaid loan was a lengthy, often arduous process Vitalis Kimutai, “Rachel Korir’s 40-Year Struggle Wins Women Land Rights,” Daily Nation, reprinted on The Land Portal, April 15, 2019, https://landportal.org/news/2019/04/rachel-korirs-40-year-struggle-wins-women-land-rights.
• before loan applications were submitted to headquarters Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• accurately measure the success of the program Women’s World Banking, discussions with KCB management.
• thanks to the deeper engagement with relationship managers Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• mandates that they were asked to deliver on Women’s World Banking, discussions with KCB management.
• training in the one hundred pilot branches Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• insufficient evidence to determine what does work and under what conditions Iris Bohnet, What Works: Gender Equality by Design (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016), 51–53.
• increased from 22 percent to over 50 percent of the MSME portfolio Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• affected KCB’s ability to serve women-owned businesses Women’s World Banking, KCB gender sensitization training.
• cross-selling, marketing products, and communications training Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• compared to the average 40 percent increase by nonborrowers Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• by year three of the project, up from 86 percent at the outset Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• credit processes, staff training, and product offerings Women’s World Banking, Empowering MSMEs.
• the secret to winning these customers’ business Women’s World Banking, Global Best Practices in Banking Women-Led SMEs (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2014), http://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Global-Best-Practices-Banking-Women-Led-SMEs-WomensWorldBanking.pdf.
• up to 15 percent higher than loans to male-owned MSMEs “Untapped Potential,” The Opportunity, Financial Alliance for Women, https://financialallianceforwomen.org/the-opportunity/#untappedpotential.
• such businesses can be started and run with less capital Leora F. Klapper and Simon C. Parker, “Gender and the Business Environment for New Firm Creation,” World Bank Research Observer 26, no. 2 (August 2011): 237–257, https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkp032.
• greater obstacles than men to start those businesses in the first place Reyes Aterido, Thorsten Beck, and Leonardo Iacovone, “Access to Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There a Gender Gap?,” World Development 47 (February 2013): 102–120, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.02.013.
• men are more likely to concentrate their investment in a single high-yielding project Marco Castillo, Ragan Petrie, and Maximo Torero, “Gender Differences in Risk Preferences of Entrepreneurs,” faculty paper, Department of Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, and Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne, December 2017), https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2018/preliminary/paper/BYb6nnGk; Doug Sundheim, “Do Women Take as Many Risks as Men?,” Harvard Business Review, February 27, 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/02/do-women-take-as-many-risks-as; Jugnu Ansari and Saibal Ghosh, Are Women Really More Risk-Averse? The Lending Behaviour of Women-owned Cooperatives in India (Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India), https://www.cafral.org.in/sfControl/content/Speech/621201790348PMAre_Women_Really_More_Risk-Averse.pdf.
• men’s and women’s requested loan sizes and borrowing frequency were roughly equivalent Humaira Islam, founder of Shakti Foundation, in discussion with the author, October 24, 2015.
• not to apply for a loan for fear of rejection Ciarán Mac an Bhaird, Javier Sanchez Vidal, and Brian Lucey, “Discouraged Borrowers: Evidence for Eurozone SMEs,” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money 44 (September 2016): 46–55, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intfin.2016.04.009.
• the majority of graduates self-selected not to borrow Noa Meyer, Global Program Director for the 10,000 Women Program at Goldman Sachs, discussion with the author, March 27, 2014.
• their own perceived lack of creditworthiness Hanan Morsy, Amira El-Shal, and Andinet Woldemichael, “Women Self-Selection Out of the Credit Market in Africa,” Working Paper 317 (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: African Development Bank Group, July 24, 2019), https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/working-paper-317-women-self-selection-out-credit-market-africa.
• even if it is financially disadvantageous to the lender “Taste-Based Discrimination,” Wikipedia, last edited October 10, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste-based_discrimination.
• whether they are owned by men or women Sara Carter et al., “Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Bank Lending: The Criteria and Processes Used by Bank Loan Officers in Assessing Applications,” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 31, no. 3 (May 2007): 427–444, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00181.x.
• with only the gender of the entrepreneur changed J. Michelle Brock and Ralph De Haas, “Gender Discrimination in Small Business Lending: Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Turkey,” Working Paper 232 (London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, October 7, 2019), https://www.ebrd.com/publications/working-papers/gender-discrimination.
• inexorably becomes statistical discrimination Esther Duflo, “Women Empowerment and Economic Development,” Journal of Economic Literature 50, no. 4 (December 2012): 1051–1079, https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.50.4.1051; Aterido, Beck, and Iacovone, “Access to Finance”; Mala Htun, Francesca Jensenius, and Jami Nelson-Nuñez, “Gender-Discriminatory Laws and Women’s Economic Agency,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 26, no. 2 (Summer 2019): 193–222, https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxy042.
• there was far less scope for discriminatory behavior Muravyev, Schäfer, and Talavera, “Entrepreneurs’ Gender and Financial Constraints.”
• “fades away with gender-specific learning on the job” Thorsten Beck, Patrick Behr, and Andreas Madestam, “Sex and Credit: Do Gender Interactions Matter for Credit Marker Outcomes?,” Journal of Banking and Finance 87 (February 2018): 380–396, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.10.018.
• Gender discrimination was literally costing the bank money Brock and De Haas, “Gender Discrimination in Small Business Lending.” https://www.ebrd.com/publications/working-papers/gender-discrimination.
• did not place stricter requirements on women’s loan applications Brock and De Haas, “Gender Discrimination in Small Business Lending.”
• no longer showed evidence of discriminatory behavior Beck, Behr, and Madestam, “Sex and Credit.”
• male and female loan officers performed similarly José G. Montalvo and Marta Reynal-Querol, “Gender and Credit Risk: A View from the Loan Officer’s Desk,” Working Paper 1076 (Barcelona: Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, March 2019), https://www.bde.es/f/webpi/SES/seminars/2019/Fich/sie20190627.pdf.
• ensure that low-income households are not put into even greater distress “Lessons on Digital Consumer Credit from East Africa,” CGAP, https://www.cgap.org/topics/collections/digital-credit.
• enable women-owned businesses to circumvent the barriers to accessing growth capital World Bank, Promoting Digital and Innovative SME Financing (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020), https://www.gpfi.org/sites/gpfi/files/saudi_digitalSME.pdf; Rashmi Pillai and Peter Zetterli, “Four Next-Gen Fintech Models Bridging the Small Business Credit Gap,” CGAP, June 20, 2019, https://www.cgap.org/blog/4-next-gen-fintech-models-bridging-small-business-credit-gap.
• can monitor the status of the loan online Women’s World Banking, due diligence for investment in Amartha, October 2020–February 2021.
• is gaining ground throughout the emerging markets Allied Market Research, “Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending Market to Reach $558.9 Billion by 2027: At 29.7% CAGR,” news release, Globe Newswire, May 11, 2020, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/05/11/2031233/0/en/Peer-to-Peer-P2P-Lending-Market-to-Reach-558-9-Billion-by-2027-At-29-7-CAGR.html.
• greater levels of proven profitability than men and pay higher interest rates Xiao Chen, Bihong Huang, and Dezhu Ye, “The Gender Gap in Peer-to-Peer Lending: Evidence from The People’s Republic of China,” ADBI Working Paper 977 (Tokyo: Asian Development Bank Institute, July 2019), https://www.adb.org/publications/gender-gap-peer-peer-lending- evidence-prc.
• fintechs can make unsecured digital loans an attractive option for women-owned businesses Pillai and Zetterli, “Four Next-Gen Fintech Models Bridging the Small Business Credit Gap.”
• effectively eliminating delinquent loans Kope Kopo, “Simple Tools for Your Business,” https://kopokopo.co.ke.
• allowing her to build a credit history Pillai and Zetterli, “Four Next-Gen Fintech Models Bridging the Small Business Credit Gap”; Tienda Pago, “Tienda Pago Closes Series A to Boost Access to Financing for Small Merchants in Latin America,” news release, Accion, April 3, 2018, https://www.accion.org/tienda-pago-closes-series-a-to-boost-access-to-financing-for-small-merchants-in-latin-america.
• understanding of the company’s cash flows for future lending Pillai and Zetterli, “Four Next-Gen Fintech Models Bridging the Small Business Credit Gap”; Ruby Hinchliffe, “Nigerian Fintech Lidya Lends $3m to SMEs in Eastern Europe,” LendTech, Fintech Futures, October 8, 2020, https://www.fintechfutures.com/2020/10/nigerian-fintech-lidya-lends-3m-to-smes-in-eastern-europe; Lidya Homepage, https://www.lidya.info/us/en/home.

Chapter 6: Making the Business Case for Managing Risk

• risk management strategies that are estimated to be ten times less effective than formal protection mechanisms Suzy Cheston et al., Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers (Washington, DC: Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and Institute of International Finance, January 2018) https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/08/Inclusive-Insurance-Final-2018.06.13.pdf.
• she could not protect her hard-won success Nandini, an FWWB India client, as told to a Women’s World Banking researcher, 2013.
• recover from a crisis when it does occur Craig Churchill and Michal Matul, eds., Protecting the Poor: A Microinsurance Compendium, vol. 2 (Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2012), https://www.munichre-foundation.org/en/Inclusive_insurance/Protecting_the_poor_A_microinsurance_compendium/Protecting_the_poor_A_microinsurance_compendium_Volume_II.html.
• back down the chute into deeper poverty Jayshree Vyas, Managing Director, SEWA Bank, interview by the author, March 2008.
• or reach out to expensive informal money lenders Women’s World Banking, Health Microinsurance: An Inclusive Approach (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2016), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Health-Microinsurance-Inclusive-Approach-WWB-2016-Web.compressed.pdf; Anjali Banthia, Susan Johnson, Michael J. McCord, et al., Microinsurance That Works for Women: Making Microinsurance Programs Gender-Sensitive (Geneva: Microinsurance Innovation Facility and International Labour Organization, October 2009), https://www.ilo.org/employment/Whatwedo/Publications/WCMS_124368/lang--en/index.htm.
• frequently cited reason low-income women’s informal businesses fail Women’s World Banking, “Caregiver Research,” internal project preparation and materials, 2009–2016.
• insurers will need to keep costs as low as possible as well Cheston et al., Inclusive Insurance.
• are all married and also live nearby in Marka Hiyam, client, interviews by the author, August and October 2019.
• would have taken her fifteen days before Hiyam, interviews.
• became the family’s sole source of income Hiyam, interviews.
• limiting her business to pick-up orders at the apartment Hiyam, interviews.
• painstakingly rebuilt following his earlier illness Hiyam, interviews.
• more opportunities for contact between insurer and client Cheston et al., Inclusive Insurance.
• even greater risk of falling deeper into poverty Women’s World Banking, “Caregiver Research.”
• to 146,000 clients, 96 percent of them women Early Warning System, “MFW Jordan (IFC-42450),” last modified March 3, 2020, https://ewsdata.rightsindevelopment.org/projects/42450-mfw-jordan.
• 73 percent of Microfund’s staff and management are women Women’s World Banking, network member financial reporting template, 2006–2010.
• with both organizations sharing the premium revenue Mazen Ayham Nimri, interview by the author, July 10, 2017; Mazen Ayham Nimri, “How to Turn Your Microinsurance Product into a Success Story,” Women’s World Banking, February 3, 2016, https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights-and-impact/how-to-turn-your-microinsurance-product-into-a-success-story; Mazen Ayham Nimri, “Microinsurance: The Jordanian Experience,” PowerPoint presentation at the conference Microinsurance: International Experiences and Egyptian Applications, Cairo, Egypt, May 7–8, 2017.
• to monitor exclusions can be quite costly Nimri, interview.
• managed to keep fraudulent claims to less than 2 percent Nimri, interview; Nimri, “Microinsurance Product.”
• premium income represents a valuable source of noninterest earnings Nimri, interview.
• “the courage to take risks as a smaller insurer that larger companies won’t take” Nimri, interview.
• premium income estimated at $30–$50 billion AXA Group, Accenture, and International Finance Corporation (IFC), She for Shield: Insure Women to Better Protect All (Washington, DC: IFC and AXA Group, 2015).
• a strong preference for enrolling husbands and children in addition to themselves, particularly for health coverage Banthia et al., Microinsurance That Works for Women.
• build trust and familiarity with insurance products Cheston et al., Inclusive Insurance; Herman Smit, Cat Denoon-Stevens, and Antonia Esser, InsurTech for Development: A Review of Insurance Technologies and Applications in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Cape Town, South Africa: Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion, March 2017), https://cenfri.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/InsurTech-Research-Study_March-2017.pdf.
• exploring expansion to other emerging markets Women’s World Banking, PULA application to Women’s World Banking Fintech Innovation Challenge, October 2019.
• limiting distribution to a single decision-maker AXA Group et al., She for Shield.
• would yield $500 billion in new written premiums AXA Group et al., She for Shield.
• may also see improved rates of customer retention Global Banking Alliance for Women, The Women’s Market for Insurance: An Emerging Business Opportunity (Brooklyn, NY: Global Banking Alliance for Women, Brooklyn, 2018), https://financialallianceforwomen.org/download/womens-market-insurance-emerging-business-opportunity.
• “I plan to keep working, I plan to improve my business. I will open a store.” Women’s World Banking Caregiver Outcomes Research, August 2, 2019.

Chapter 7: A Call to Action

• contactless payments were truly in everyone’s interest Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), Women’s World Banking, Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID 19: Opportunities and Considerations for Women’s Inclusion and Empowerment (Seattle: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, CGAP, Women’s World Banking, 2020), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/publications/2020.Digital-Cash-Transfers-in-Times-of-COVID-19-Opportunities-and-Considerations-for-Womens-Inclusion-and-Empowerment.pdf.
• over 95 percent of the Indian population have an Aadhaar number G. Shainesh, Shyam Sunder, K. Sudhir, et al., “Aadhaar, Global Network Case 102–18,” Yale School of Management, August 6, 2018, https://som.yale.edu/case/2018/aadhaar.
• new accounts were opened, primarily by women, to receive these government payments Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation et al., Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID 19.
• 176 million poor women who do not yet have a Jan Dhan account Rohini Pande et al., Reaching India’s Poorest Women with COVID-19 Relief, policy brief, Yale Economic Growth Center, Yale University, April 17, 2020), https://egc.yale.edu/reaching-indias-poorest-women-covid-19-relief.
• reduce income inequality and foster financial stability Martin Čihák and Ratna Sahay, “Finance and Inequality,” IMF Staff Discussion Note SDN/20/01 (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2020).
• easy, low-cost entry into the formal financial system Nimal Fernando and Robin Newnham, National Financial Inclusion Strategies: Current State of Practice (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Alliance for Financial Inclusion, June 2018), https://www.afi-global.org/sites/default/files/publications/2018-06/National%20Financial%20Inclusion%20Strategies.pdf.
• who have opened accounts to facilitate government relief payments Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation et al., Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID 19.
• Banks can use the data to improve their product offerings to women Fernando and Newnham, National Financial Inclusion Strategies; United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Collecting and Using Gender-Disaggregated Data for Financial Policymaking, September 2020, https://www.unsgsa.org/sites/default/files/resources-files/2020-09/Policy_Note_Gender-Disaggregated_Data_FINAL.pdf.
• accountable to national financial inclusion strategies with clearly stated targets Fernando and Newnham, National Financial Inclusion Strategies.
• eliminate the gender gap in financial inclusion by 2024 Central Bank of Nigeria, National Financial Inclusion Strategy (Revised) (Abuja, Nigeria: Central Bank of Nigeria, October 2018), https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2019/ccd/national%20financial%20inclusion%20strategy.pdf.
• eliminate financial discrimination if it is enshrined in the legal code Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, and Dorothe Singer, “Financial Inclusion and Legal Discrimination against Women: Evidence from Developing Countries,” Policy Research Working Paper 6416 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15553.
• 167 countries still have at least one law restricting women’s economic opportunity “Entrepreneurship: Examining Constraints to Women’s Ability to Start and Run a Business,” in World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2018 (New York: World Bank, 2018), https://wbl.worldbank.org/en/data/exploretopics/wbl_rb.
• to vote and to be counted in a national census Alan Gelb and Anna Diofasi Metz, Identification Revolution: Can Digital ID be Harnessed for Development? (Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, 2017), https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/identification-revolution-can-digital-id-be-harnessed-development-brief.pdf.
• mandatory in over 150 countries Lucia Hanmer and Marina Elefante, Achieving Universal Access to ID: Gender-based Legal Barriers Against Women and Good Practice Reforms (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32474; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation et al., Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID-19.
• less likely than men to have the necessary identification documents Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer, et al., The Global Findex Database 2017: Measuring Financial Inclusion and the Fintech Revolution (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018).
• encourage greater competition among mobile providers Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation et al., Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID-19; Women’s World Banking, “Reaching Financial Equality for Women: A 10-point Action Plan for Governments and Businesses to Rebuild Stronger after COVID-19 by Prioritizing Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion” (New York: Women’s World Banking, March 8, 2021), https://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Reaching_Financial_Equality_2021.pdf.
• credit history that banks can rely on to perform due diligence World Bank, Women’s Financial Inclusion and the Law 2018.
• 20 percent of total loans extended in only eighteen months E. MacEachern, email message to author, April 20, 2017.
• 60 million unbanked women worldwide still receive government social benefits in cash Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• “head of household,” more often the man, as the recipient of such payments Shelly J. Lundberg, Robert A. Pollak, and Terence J. Wales, “Do Husbands and Wives Pool Their Resources? Evidence from the United Kingdom Child Benefit,” Journal of Human Resources 32, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 463–480, https://doi.org/10.2307/146179; Jenny C. Aker, “Payment Mechanisms and Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 65, no. 1 (October 2016): 1–37, https://doi.org/10.1086/687578.
• the association of more women on these boards with greater banking sector stability Ratna Sahay and Martin Čihák, Women in Finance: A Case for Closing Gaps (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, September 17, 2018), https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2018/09/17/women-in-finance-a-case-for-closing-gaps-45136.
• “decisions that not only impact them directly, but are often made in their name” Christopher J. Brummer, “What do the Data Reveal About (the Absence of Black) Financial Regulators?,” working paper, (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Law Center, Institute of International Economic Law, July 20, 2020), http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3656772.
• far exceeds the annual revenue of the world’s leading financial institutions Jessica Clempner, Women in Financial Services 2020: A Panoramic Approach (New York: Oliver Wyman, 2019), https://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/v2/publications/2019/November/Women-In-Financial-Services-2020.pdf.
• JP Morgan Chase was in the number two position at $114.6 billion Nathan Reiff, “10 Biggest Banks,” Investopedia, January 16, 2021, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/122315/worlds-top-10-banks-jpm-wfc.asp.
• it can lead to better products for men as well Clempner, Women in Financial Services 2020.
• in choosing to engage with a financial product or service Kantar, Winning Over Women: A Commercial Imperative for Financial Service (London: Financial Alliance for Women, 2017), https://financialallianceforwomen.org/download/winning-women-commercial-imperative-financial-services.
• tend to engage more deeply than men with those relationships Women’s World Banking, Global Best Practices in Banking Women-Led SMEs (New York: Women’s World Banking, 2014), http://www.womensworldbanking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Global-Best-Practices-Banking-Women-Led-SMEs-WomensWorldBanking.pdf; Financial Alliance for Women, “Untapped Potential/The Opportunity,” https://financialallianceforwomen.org/the-opportunity/#untappedpotential.
• to track both individual and institutional performance Women’s World Banking, Global Best Practices in Banking Women-Led SMEs.
• if more women applied for loans, more might receive them Ciarán Mac an Bhaird, Javier Sanchez Vidal, and Brian Lucey, “Discouraged Borrowers: Evidence for Eurozone SMEs,” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money 44 (September 2016): 46–55, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intfin.2016.04.009; Ken S. Cavalluzzo, Linda C. Cavalluzzo, and John D. Wolken, “Competition, Small Business Financing, and Discrimination: Evidence from a New Survey,” Journal of Business 75, no. 4 (October 2002): 641–679, https://doi.org/10.1086/341638; Rose M. Prasad, “Loan Hurdles: Do Banks Discriminate against Women Entrepreneurs?,” Academy of Management Perspectives 23, no.4 (November 30, 2017): 91–93, https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.23.4.91; Richa Singh, “Gender-Based Financing Preferences of SMEs: Discouraged Borrowers,” master’s thesis, University of Ottawa, 2014, http://hdl.handle.net/10393/30836.
• self-selecting out of this opportunity for business growth Mac an Bhaird, Sanchez Vidal, and Lucey, “Discouraged Borrowers;” Cavalluzzo, Cavalluzzo, and Wolken, “Competition, Small Business Financing, and Discrimination”; Prasad, “Loan Hurdles”; Singh, “Gender-Based Financing Preferences of SMEs.”
• to higher profitability and even to greater levels of innovation Sahay and Čihák, Women in Finance; J. Yo-Jud Cheng and Boris Groysberg, “Gender Diversity at the Board Level Can Mean Innovation Success,” MIT Sloan Management Review, January 22, 2020, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/gender-diversity-at-the-board-level-can-mean-innovation-success.
• nearly 40 percent of fintechs globally have no women on their boards Jessica Clempner, Rich Chavez, and Tiphaine Ramenason, “How to Shift Gender Balance in Fintech,” Fintech Futures, April 24, 2020, https://www.fintechfutures.com/2020/04/how-to-shift-gender-balance-in-fintech.
• tamp down differences in favor of group cohesion Robin J. Ely and David A. Thomas, “Getting Serious about Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case,” Harvard Business Review, November–December 2020, https://hbr.org/2020/11/getting-serious-about-diversity-enough-already-with-the-business-case.
• inequality in access to smartphones Demirgüç-Kunt et al., Global Findex Database 2017.
• establishing trust with both men and women Aakanksha Thakur, Samveet Sahoo, Prabir Barooah, et al., “Agency Banking: How Female Agents Make a Difference,” MicroSave Consulting, April 5, 2016, http://blog.microsave.net/2016/04/05/agency-banking-how-female-agents-make-a-difference; Women’s World Banking, “Pilot Evaluation Findings,” PowerPoint presentation to Bank of Baroda management, December 2, 2020.
• roughly 90 percent of transactions in the developing world are still completed in cash Hugh Thomas, “Measuring Progress toward a Cashless Society,” Compendium, MasterCard, 2014, https://newsroom.mastercard.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/MasterCardAdvisors-CashlessSociety-July-20146.pdf.
• one-third of transactions in the US are settled in cash Raynil Kumar and Shaun O’Brien, 2019 Findings from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (San Francisco: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, June 2019), https://www.frbsf.org/cash/publications/fed-notes/2019/june/2019-findings-from-the-diary-of-consumer-payment-choice.
• with only 12 percent of transactions taking place in cash Statista, “Share of Cash in Total Payment Transactions in Sweden from 2000–2019,” October 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095529/cash-use-in-sweden.
• location of CICO points is an even more significant factor in driving inclusion William Jack and Tavneet Suri, “Mobile Money: The Economics of M-PESA,” NBER Working Paper No. 16721 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2011), https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w16721/w16721.pdf.
• doorstep withdrawal based on a customer’s biometric ID Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation et al., Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID-19.
• if they did not also address her child care responsibilities Ana Revenga and Meagan Dooley, “What Works for Women Entrepreneurs? A Meta-Analysis of Recent Evaluations to Support Female Entrepreneurship,” Global Working Paper 142 (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, Global Economy and Development program, September 2020), https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/What-works-for-women-entrepreneurs_final.pdf.
• women’s financial inclusion might increase both women’s agency and opportunity Lotus McDougal, Jeni Klugman, Nabamallika Dehingiam, et al., “Financial Inclusion and Intimate Partner Violence: What Does the Evidence Suggest?,” PLoS One 14, no. 10 (October 2019), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223721.
• “companies stand to gain the most if they change their approach” Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre, “The Female Economy,” Harvard Business Review, September 2009, https://hbr.org/2009/09/the-female-economy.
• 84 percent of US consumers expecting companies to stand up for women’s rights Cone Communications, “Americans Willing to Buy or Boycott Companies Based on Corporate Values, According to New Research by Cone Communications,” May 17, 2017, https://www.conecomm.com/news-blog/2017/5/15/americans-willing-to-buy-or-boycott-companies-based-on-corporate-values-according-to-new-research-by-cone-communications.
• inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand Bloomberg, “Gender Equality Index,” https://www.bloomberg.com/gei.
• reported being misunderstood by their financial advisers Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Andrea Turner Moffitt, and Melinda Marshall, Harnessing the Power of the Purse: Female Investors and Global Opportunities for Growth (New York: Coqual, 2014), https://coqual.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/25_harnessingthepowerofthepursefemaleinvestors_keyfindings-1.pdf.
• 62 percent of women with a net worth of $500,000 or more have built their own wealth Elizabeth MacBride, “The $11 Trillion Market Sallie Krawcheck Is Betting On,” Quarterly Investment Guide, CNBC, last modified May 18, 2016, https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/11/the-11-trillion-women-investment-market-sallie-krawcheck-is-betting-on.html.
• women want their values reflected in their investments Hewlett, Moffitt, and Marshall, Harnessing the Power of the Purse.
• over fifty publicly traded gender lens investment funds Suzanne Biegel and Sandi M. Hunt, Project Sage 3.0: Tracking Venture Capital, Private Equity and Private Debt with a Gender Lens (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, 2020), https://socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu/research-reports/reports-2/project-sage-3.
• publicly listed companies that prioritize and advance women’s leadership Fidelity Investments, “Fidelity Women’s Leadership Fund,” last modified January 2020, https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/investing-ideas/womens-leadership-fund.
• as early as kindergarten can have lifelong benefits Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Council, Recommendations on Principles and Good Practices for Financial Education and Awareness (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, July 2005), https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/35108560.pdf.
• when it comes to making personal financial decisions Financial Alliance for Women, “Untapped Potential.”
• do not always address both facets of the problem National Network to End Domestic Violence, “About Financial Abuse,” https://nnedv.org/content/about-financial-abuse.
• this well-educated population would be able to take greater advantage of technological changes Leora Klapper, Mayada El-Zoghbi, and Jake Hess, “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Financial Inclusion,” working paper, CGAP and UNSGSA (United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development) (Washington, DC: CGAP, April 2016), https://www.cgap.org/sites/default/files/Working-Paper-Achieving-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Apr-2016_0.pdf.
• income grow at a faster pace than the country’s average Klapper, El-Zoghbi, and Hess, “Sustainable Development Goals.”