Closing the gender gap and increasing women’s access to financial products and services could unlock $330 billion in global annual revenue, a new report from BNY Mellon and the United Nations Foundation stated.
The report, Powering Potential: Increasing Women’s Access to Financial Products and Services, says greater financial inclusion of women is key to narrowing this gap. It proposes actions to scale up the private, public and social sectors’ involvement in advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
“By clearing the way for women to become fully engaged as financial actors, we have the opportunity to improve the lives of women and dramatically expand the market for financial products and services,” Heidi DuBois, global head of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility at BNY Mellon, said. “Our hope is that financial services providers will design and market more products and services that fuel women’s economic participation, giving investors more options to invest with a gender lens.”
Expanding women’s access to financial services could open up $40 billion in annual global revenue in retail banking product access and $290 billion in annual global revenue in life insurance access. Further, it could enable financial services firms to grow their share of $100 billion to $120 billion in annual revenue that women currently contribute to the retail investment market.
Women influence or control about $20 trillion in assets, which is about 25 to 30 percent of global wealth. However, women only have 77 percent of the access to financial services — such as checking and savings; payments; credit, loans and capital; insurance; and investment – that men do. This is primarily for three reasons: there fewer products on the market that meet women’s needs; products are not effectively marketed or delivered to women; and societal and structural barriers impede women’s ability to be financial actors.
It also found that women who control financial assets are often more likely than men to invest in the health, education, and well-being of their families.
“Economically empowering women provides an undeniable return on investment: markets grow, women thrive and families and communities are stronger. Closing the gender gap in access to financial products and services is an opportunity and obligation we can’t ignore any longer. If we want a better future, it starts with gender equality,” Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation.
The report concludes that realizing full social and economic gains of women’s financial access will require long-term commitments from financial institutions, investors, NGOs, and governments.