Barbara Auricchio
Gender Specialist at the Gender, Inclusion, and Diversity Management Office
This blog was written by Barbara Auricchio, CAF Senior Executive, and Gabriela Rivadeneira, Financial Strengthening and Inclusion Analyst of the Superintendence of Popular and Solidarity Economy (SEPS) of Ecuador.
aced with an average of almost 45% (42% men vs. 48% women) of unmet financial demand in the LAC region, public and private financial institutions in the region are gradually diversifying and customizing their value offerings to reduce social and gender gaps in terms of access, use and quality of financial and non-financial offerings. In particular, in order to reach the women's market that is still unattended or underserved, value offers are being developed that, in addition to taking into account the diversity of women's financial, digital and entrepreneurial capabilities, include a range of financial products and services adapted to their specific challenges, to better address situations of lower social protection, greater income and time poverty and, more generally, greater vulnerability to situations of social, economic, climate or pandemic crises such as the one we are experiencing today with COVID-19.
Even in the face of these advances, it is worth asking whether these actions are sufficient to guarantee a financial system that is sustainable and resilient from a gender perspective, and additionally, what would be needed to ensure that these important advances are not isolated efforts but rather a commitment and responsibility of all the agents that are part of the financial system, especially those that play a steering role in it?
Just as in other areas of our society, to achieve transformational changes in favor of gender equality and women's empowerment, it is necessary to break down those structural barriers in the financial system that may limit equity in the enjoyment of financial and non-financial offerings for some segments of the population, particularly women.
To this end, it is essential that the change begins with the national entities that regulate, supervise and control the financial system, since they have a key role to play in creating the regulatory conditions and guidelines that facilitate the development of virtuous and sustainable financial ecosystems for women's access to financing and financial inclusion.
The incorporation of a gender perspective within the institutions and their processes of regulation, control and supervision of financial institutions should be carried out through 4 main actions: (i) measuring and making visible the persistent gaps in the financial and non-financial supply with information disaggregated by sex, gender and other important socio-demographic variables; (ii) analyzing regulations from a gender perspective and making adjustments to them; (iii) strengthening institutional capacities to facilitate organizational change; and finally (iv) creating accountability mechanisms that allow for periodic and transparent measurement of the changes made by the entities in favor of equality and financial inclusion.
With this purpose and vision, CAF - Development Bank of Latin America - has been accompanying since 2020, among other entities, the Superintendency of the Popular and Solidarity Economy (SEPS) of Ecuador to strengthen its institutional capacities and framework for action in terms of gender equality and inclusion in compliance with the 2030 Agenda, and specifically goals 5.a and 8.10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), its national regulations and corporate principles. Specifically, SEPS contemplates within its strategic objectives of strengthening the management of the Popular and Solidarity Financial Sector entities and Popular and Solidarity Economy (EPS) organizations, a specific axis of financial inclusion with a gender perspective.
Within this framework and in order to contribute to improving the environment for women's access to financing and financial inclusion, technical cooperation with CAF has enabled SEPS to develop a series of actions to measure, make visible and address the main barriers to women's access to financial and non-financial services, as well as to decision-making spaces in Savings and Credit Cooperatives (COAC, by their Spanish initials).
The evidence has revealed SEPS the need for a regulatory change to improve the control mechanisms and impact measurement of the value offer of the COACs, which would allow the identification and disaggregation of the financial needs of the different population segments and, based on the evidence, the shaping of the financial supply. On November 24, 2021, the Superintendency issued the “Control Standard for the Protection of the Rights of Members, Clients and Financial Users from the Financial Inclusion with a Gender Perspective”, which requires collecting information disaggregated by gender and cross-referenced by age group, type of product, type of credit, type of channel, economic activity, among others, both access (coverage indicators by points of attention, population served) and use (population with savings accounts, with current loans). This would also include the requirement of indicators of women's representation among members, representatives to the assembly and in hierarchical positions within the cooperatives.
The obtained results should be displayed on the web pages of the entities or in a visible place and would be collected in an aggregated manner in the SEPS portal, which would allow taking actions not only inside the entities themselves, but also as a control entity, to promote programs, services, products and incentives contributing to the reduction of the gaps in access and use of the financial offer by women.
The most important thing about the issuance of the regulation is the pertinent follow-up for its compliance and the actions taken to reach the equality parameters. The control entity would periodically evaluate gender gaps and promote policies, workshops, conferences and seminars to join efforts in the mainstreaming of this approach in all areas; not only in the use of services, but also in the governance of the entity, in the hiring of personnel, in the benefit programs for members, such as financial education, among others.
The regulation and the following actions (such as the revision of the cooperative governance and financial education regulations to include a gender perspective) would guarantee women access to important positions in responsible and informed decision making, as well as opening up the possibility of new sources of financing and, by improving their income, would improve their own and their family's living conditions.
The Superintendency would have a data portal increasingly enriched with disaggregated information and would allow the members of the entities to know more closely, through the information published by their cooperative, the results of their administration, generating an empowerment which would allow SEPS to join the fight to achieve several SDGs, including the reduction of inequalities, gender equality, health and welfare, quality education (for family members) and the end of poverty.
