Global Banking Alliance for Women to Mobilize $4.3 Billion for Women-Owned Businesses in Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action
New York, New York (PRWEB) September 24, 2014 -- In a groundbreaking Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action, the Global Banking Alliance for Women – an international consortium of financial institutions driving women’s wealth creation – announces a plan to mobilize $4.3 billion in capital for women-owned businesses worldwide, opening up financial access for an additional 2 million women.
Women make up 40 percent of the world’s workforce and control $20 trillion in consumer spending, yet they remain underserved by banks. The International Financial Corporation estimates that there is a credit gap of nearly $300 billion for registered women-owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. This gap in access to capital is a significant barrier to full financial inclusion for women in the global economy.
Serving the Women’s Market also represents a substantial opportunity for banks, but many are not yet targeting the sector. According to a new study commissioned by the GBA and supported by McKinsey & Company, there is a severe lack of data around the Women’s Market: lack of data to make the case for a program internally, lack of information on the differences in financial behavior between men and women, and a lack of data to track progress.
The Global Banking Alliance for Women’s Commitment to Action, “Banking on Women: Scaling the Women’s Market Program,” seeks to overcome these barriers by leveraging the power and success of 15 member banks to share their experiences and data globally. The commitment has three levels: 1) Proving the business case for serving women through first-of-its-kind sex-disaggregated data collection, 2) Scaling knowledge transfer to promote rapid adoption by additional banks, and 3) Leveraging partnerships.
“GBA’s proprietary blueprint for creating Women’s Market Programs helps banks develop a holistic value proposition that allows them to bridge the knowledge and service gaps that limit women’s access to capital,” said Inez Murray, CEO of the GBA.
“GBA’s Commitment will catalyze an unprecedented level of collaboration among commercial banks and development finance institutions through peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing, networking and data analysis, impacting both the financial industry and women around the world,” added Murray.
As part of the commitment, GBA banks have agreed to share data and results from their Women’s Market programs, creating what will be the first global warehouse of sex-disaggregated customer data from banks. The data will paint the first global picture of the female economy for banks, proving to them that this is a profitable segment to serve.
A total of 15 banks are participating in the commitment, which represents an unprecedented level of collaboration: Westpac Banking Corporation (Australia), Royal Bank of Scotland (UK), BLC Bank (Lebanon), Itau Unibanco (Brazil), BHD Leon (Dominican Republic), Rawbank (Democratic Republic of Congo), HBL (Pakistan), Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, Postbank (Uganda), Chase Kenya, Centenary Bank (Uganda), Garanti Bank (Turkey), UT Bank (Ghana), TEB Bank (Turkey), and Banco G&T Continental (El Salvador). Two International Finance Institutions are also joining: the International Finance Corporation and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Ultimately, the GBA’s Commitment will mobilize $4.3 billion in new capital to invest in women-owned businesses, which will support 900,000 additional women small business owners and their employees, and give 2 million additional women access to capital and financial services, substantially advancing financial inclusion for women and helping to sustainably grow women’s wealth across the globe.
About the Global Banking Alliance for Women
The Global Banking Alliance for Women is a consortium of financial institutions driving women’s wealth creation. Our 41 member institutions work in more than 135 countries to build innovative, comprehensive programs that deliver women entrepreneurs the tools – access to capital, information, education and markets – they need to succeed. Membership in the Alliance provides our member institutions with a global clearinghouse for best practices and a unique platform for peer learning, giving them the resources they in turn need to serve their women customers well. To learn more and access our membership application, visit http://www.gbaforwomen.org.
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date members of the CGI community have made more than 2,900 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
Anna Clark, EarthPeople Media, http://www.earthpeoplemedia.com, +1 (214) 597-0367, [email protected]
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