Mary Ellen Iskenderian: Central Bank of the Future Conference Keynote Address (Day 1)

So welcome back everybody and
welcome to our new guests we think

resolved all of our technical difficulties
were happy to have you back for

the University of Michigan central bank
of the Future Conference which is hosted

here at the University of Michigan by
the Center on finance law and policy for

those of you who are watching on line are
new to the audience I'm Michael Barr on

the faculty director of the Center on
finance on policy as well as the Joan and

Sanford while dean of the Gerald r.

Ford School of Public Policy and good
afternoon everyone I'm Adrian Harris I'm

a senior research fellow at the center as
well as a professor of the practice at

the Ford School of Public Policy we're
thrilled to have so many distinguished

speakers here today looting governors
deputy governors of central banks and

former governors including will have with
us tomorrow Governor from the rigs bank

in Sweden Deputy Governor Timothy lane
he's been with us today with us tomorrow

from the Bank of Canada deputy governor
Howard from the central bank of Egypt.

Governor I'm odd from the Central Bank
of Nigeria and former governor and

from the central bank of Kenya we have an
outstanding lineup of speakers joining us

over the next couple of days policymakers
fin tect executives journalists academics

and leaders from various disciplines and
many stakeholders in the audience today

from a number of organizations
including the World Bank the i.m.f.

see gap financial help network and
others as many of you

know this is a small part of a larger
research project that Adrian and

I are conducting in partnership with
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

that is looking to eliminate the
technology business and policy innovations

that can be used to improve financial
inclusion around the world.

Technology has already dramatically
changed financial services whether these

changes lead to more affordable
useful services that benefit low and

moderate income people or those who live
in rural areas or lack permanent address

or don't have a dedication whether
leads to fewer services or

less affordable options that's a result of
the decisions they will be making now and

many decades into the future the experts
who will be presenting over the next few

days and who are asking questions from
the audience come from lots of different

backgrounds but we're all united in
the goal of expanding access to financial

inclusion and working to make
a financial system that works for

everyone we hope you'll leave this
conference with a different outlook and

the number of new ideas that will spur
further discussion and as part of that we

hope this conference will inspire you
to submit a proposal to present next

year's conference so part of what you'll
find in your packets are a call for

papers including deadlines and
other logistics for

policy proposals research ideas
technology proposals that we can present

next year there's also a few other items
in your registration packet that I'd

like to call your attention to 1st
the University of Michigan's Fin Tech

collaborative where he
has issued a request for

proposals to fund Internet disciplinary
research papers courses and

educational initiatives around
the university with an emphasis on block

change applications 2nd this Friday
the 4th is the deadline for the u.n.

students to register for
the $21000.00 rockets in tech challenge

it's a pitch pitch competition
where students can win cash for

developing Finn attack hashcash students.

For developing a fin tech solution
to modern business problems with

the potential for social impact.

3rd also finding your packet for
a flyer for

October 18th you have an innovation
in action is hosting a financial

inclusion design Jam were student
teams will be challenged to take

the best components of bank credit
union and other lending products and

create a universally easy and affordable
short term loan product in just 4 hours

I want to go over a few additional details
for the next couple of days you're in

Palmer Commons in the Great Lakes room
the hole you walk through is the atrium

we're hearing obviously in just a moment
from Mary Ellen Iskenderian and following

her address will be holding an opening
reception in the atrium that is open to

everyone tomorrow morning will spend most
of the day in the auditorium called Forum

hall Jen tester from the financial health
and health network will get us started and

we'll have a full day of 4 different
panels about Central Bank approaches to

financial inclusion at the end of each
keynote or panel conversation if there's

time to do so we're going to be opening
the floor to questions look out for

the mike runners and
please do use the mics because we'll be

both video recording and live streaming
this conference as we are now and

the people watching online want to hear
to hello to our online viewers already

a Before we get to introductions of our
keynote speaker we'd like to think number

of people who making this event
possible are collaborators in this

larger eventual venture Michael weekend
Chris Kolob be a monster not Paul and

Paul will sing of the bell and
Melinda Gates Foundation

co-sponsors the Ford School of Public
Policy and the Ross schools business plus

impact our student group co-sponsors
domestic policy Corps in Michigan

the Fin Tech and of course all of you
our speakers and participants today.

We'd also like to thank the c.f.l.

staff Christy there and.

You've all had great interactions with and
helping us all get here and

arrive safely and in one piece Kelly Brown
Laura Lee Chris Myers Eric Van Deventer

of the Ford school
Haley Philips cat Johnson.

The impact studio and business plus impact
and all of the Center on financial and

policies are A's who you've seen
throughout the conference and

have been helping you along your journey
as well but especially our designers j.

Campbell Lauer and
Elizabeth fellow the burger and

our core research team Ashton Jennifer
Cali Cole Lucas Carr and Michael.

And now let me begin

our formal part of the day by introducing
our wonderful keynote speaker for

the afternoon Mary Ellen Iskenderian
Malian is President c.e.o.

woman's world banking a global nonprofit
devoted to giving more low income women

access to the financial tools and
resources they require to achieve security

and prosperity Mary Ellen joined
women's world banking in 2006 and

leads the woman's world banking
global team based in New York and

she also serves as a member of the
investment committee of its Impact Fund

prior to joining women's world banking
Mary Ellen worked for 17 years at

the International Finance Corporation
an arm of the World Bank before that

she worked for the investment bank
Lehman Brothers Mary Ellen is a member of

the Council on Foreign Relations is a
member of the women's form of New York in

the business and Sustainable Development
Commission shields an m.b.a.

from the Yale School of Management and
a Bachelor of Science and

International Economics from
Georgetown University School of

Foreign Service Please welcome me and
joining Mary Ellen thank.

Good afternoon it's really wonderful to be
with you today even though it's a little

rainy out there thank you to Michael and
Adrian for inviting me to address such

a distinguished audience of governor's
deputy governor as former governors and

other luminaries I don't like to
acknowledge the long hours hard work and

attention to detail that Christie bare
trace event is an action Smith have

invested in making this event a reality
we certainly are living in interesting

times aren't we globally we're seeing
big systemic shifts taking place

at an unbelievably rapid pace and
might have echoing a bit here.

Of Will we want to fix this or
should I keep going.

With it.

Sorry.

That's it that's any better well but
yeah great thank you for your patience.

Climate change is literally reshaping the
world around us political institutions and

systems are being challenged in
ways few of us ever anticipated

the way we live work and engage with each
other has been fundamentally changed

by the role of digital technology
over the past few decades

in many ways this is a particularly
volatile and uncertain time and

we all have a vested interest in
considering how we can shape the future

to hold a more stable resilient and
equitable world.

These ships have also resulted in
significant changes in the rules each of

you play as regulator standard setter and
policy maker you and

your central bank colleagues around the
globe have recognized that the oversight

of monetary policy payments and financial
institutions is not only critical for

the integrity and
stability of our financial systems but

is also essential in promoting
sustainable and inclusive growth and

the building of economies that work for
all in fact the very concept

of stability has been a reevaluated in the
last decade as regulators have questioned

just how stable a financial system
can actually be if 80 percent of

the of a country's financial transactions
take place outside that system

many of you have been in the forefront
of the drive toward greater financial

inclusion and your hard work has
really paid off in recent years we've

seen great strides in increasing financial
access throughout the developing world

according to the World Bank's Global Fund
x 1200000000 adults have obtained

a financial services account
since 2011 including 515000000

just since 24000 between 20142017
the share of adults who have

an account with a financial institution or
through a mobile money service rules

globally from 62 percent to 69
percent it's clear that the tremendous

advances in digital financial services
are behind a lot of that progress but

despite these advances there remain
some truly profound gaps in providing

access to even the most basic financial
services to those who need them most

many of you will be familiar with
another statistic from the 27900 acts

that 1700000000 people around
the world are still unbanked.

But what some of you may be less familiar
with and I'd argue we should all be paying

more to attention to is the fact that
the majority of these unbanked adults

nearly a 1000000000 of them are women
in looking at the conference agenda for

the next day and a half I see that you'll
be tackling many of the issues that

drive financial inclusion data
technology innovation and

these are the same things that are at
the heart of central banking I have

a request for you though as you
approach these discussions stop for

a moment and think about how each
of these issues might impact women

differently than they do men I am
absolutely certain that none of you would

ever explicitly design a discriminatory
regulation and that you

undoubtedly have no intention of the
imposing policies that affect women and

men differently but the truth of the
matter is that policy is not gender blind

closing the gender gap and financial
inclusion will require central bankers and

other policymakers who are sensitive
to the differences in men's and

women's experience with
the financial system and

in the broader economy and
as you begin to apply

this gender lens to various policy
approaches approaches there are a few

specific issues that can have
a disproportionate effect on women and

today I'd like to address
3 of them with you.

1st let's talk about numbers and
data central banks and financial

regulators are among the most data driven
institutions in the public sector but

if you really drill down into the data to
understand how women may be experiencing

financial services and broader
economic trends differently from men

as I'll discuss to promote policy
reforms that nurture a more inclusive

financial system and a more inclusive
the economy it would be important for

central banks and regulators to gather and
analyze gender desegregated data

2nd I'd like to explore some of
the links between financial stability

which is what many central banks tend to
emphasize through their regulations and

financial inclusion financial
institution regulation has traditionally

focused on promoting the safety and
soundness of individual firms so

that collectively the financial
system can remain stable but

is there room in regulation to consider
whether that financial system includes

everyone and especially women
research indicates that when women

have access to appropriate financial
tools health and education outcomes for

their family members especially
that of their children improves and

these at outcomes strike me as
the things that could be critical

to promoting sustainable and
inclusive growth in an economy which

is an increasingly relevant
goal among many central banks.

As my 3rd focus I'd like to discuss with
you some of the practical things that

central bankers regulators
standard setters and

other policy makers as well as industry
can do to ensure that women are able

to produce the proof to participate
in the formal financial system

he writes like to emphasize the specific
products and services that may best serve

the needs of women especially those in
developing countries already share I'll

share some of the results of women's
world banking's field research and

initiatives in this area with
regard to these 3 areas of focus

Sextus aggregated data regulation that
promotes stability and inclusion and

appropriate products that serve the needs
of women I'd like to challenge all of

you to bear these topics in mind during
our discussions here in Ann Arbor

as we consider what the central bank
of the future might look like and

how we might promote a more inclusive
financial system that can be a pillar

of a more inclusive and
sustainable economy so

1st and foremost let's begin with data
I want to stress the urgent need for

financial service providers to report and
for central banks and

regulators to collect gender
desegregated financial data

we can not move the needle on
financial inclusion let alone reach

that 1700000000 unbanked adults
without knowing who they are and

designing targeted strategies to
reach them thanks will never realize

the markets they're overlooking unless
they truly know who they're serving and

mobile network operators are no better
more than half of the telcos offering

mobile wallets today do not
desegregate their customer data.

And for the academics in the room you're
not off the hook either the basic

unit of academic research still
remains the household but

we know that not every member of that
household shares the same experience but

data collection can't be an end in itself
it must be used to further policy goals

let's take a look at the experience
of Chile the only country that has

consistently collected Sextus aggregated
financial decade of financial data for

more than a decade the quality and
depth of financial reporting and

the banking superintendent gets 100
percent compliance from the banks in Chile

on their entire desegregated data
set has allowed the government to

implement a range of policy
initiatives more effectively notably

their finding that women held
a higher percentage of housing loans

while men held more consumer loans and
that women were better we painters

greatly influenced the design of a highly
successful affordable housing scheme

Today women make up 62 percent of
that program's account holders and

women headed households have
been particular beneficiaries

we've been heartened in recent years by
the growing attention to the need for

more and better data including the i.m.f.

decision to require gender desegregated
data in its annual financial access survey

but we need to do more in a 2nd area for

your consideration relates directly
to your core mission as regulators

implementing sound regulatory atory
policy to ensure financial stability.

While the i.m.f.

has been cautious about endorsing
the macroeconomic benefits of financial

inclusion they have very clearly
stated that in developing countries

increased account ownership and saving
at a formal financial state institution

can significantly affect macroeconomic
stability particularly in

times of financial stress
the question I'd like to pose today

is whether there is room in regular retore
policy to consider not just financial and

economic stability but
also financial and economic inclusion in

this regard the benefits of bringing more
women into the formal financial system and

providing them access to the full
complement of financial services that they

need cannot be overstated from either
a financial or an economic perspective

literally mountains of research clearly
demonstrate that women spend a greater

percentage of the financial resources
under their control on education

health care of you Trisha in water and
sanitation really all the elements

of the sustainable development goals
to quote just one of the myriad

pieces of research on this topic
a study in China demonstrated that for

every 10 percent increase in financial
resources under a woman's control there

was a one percent increase in the rate of
survival of girls in the household and

significantly improved educational
outcomes for both boys and

girls in that household but
a similar 10 percent increase

in men's income resulted in
reduced rates of survival and

educational outcomes for girls and
no change in outcomes at all for boys.

These gains in health outcomes for
girls and in the educational outcomes for

both girls and boys show that
everyone wins when women control

over financial when women's control
over financial resources increases and

that's a wonderful outcome for
policy makers to pursue in general but

financial regulators and central bankers
in particular should consider these

outcomes as aligned with their focus
on financial and economic stability and

growth while more research is
necessary to quantify the impact of

these improved outcomes on economic
growth I do argue that healthier and

better educated people are probably
better positioned to participate

more fully in the economy than
people who are less healthy and

less educated over the next day and
a half you'll consider the ways in

which the central bank of the future
can promote more inclusive economies so

I'd ask you to also bear in mind
the long established positive links

between gender equality and
a country's per capita g.d.p.

its level of competitiveness
competitiveness its expenditures on school

enrollment and a range of other
human development indicators

likewise gender inequality is
associated with an increase in

income inequality as measured by
the Gini coefficient of up to 10

points if we accept that financial
inclusion can be a driver

of gender equality how can central bankers
and regulators improve women's access

to appropriate financial services and
which services are most important to women

this brings me to my 3rd area
of focus namely the products and

services that are most helpful
to women's financial inclusion.

Women's World Banking stealed work along
with the numerous research studies and

financial diary projects indicate that
savings products are the financial

services most frequently requested by low
income women digital savings in particular

present an opportunity to serve women's
financial needs in ways that both informal

and traditional formal financial services
have been unable to do financial services

delivered digitally can address
physical and emotional barriers for

women by offering better services at
lower cost digital savings accounts can

enable women to save as frequently as
possible even in very small amounts and

women clients already save
whether digital savings may or

may not enable them to
save more is unclear but

it can keep that woman's savings intact
directed towards concrete goals and

also gives her access to funds
in case of emergency perhaps

the best way to show you the importance
of savings to low income women is to let

the women tell you themselves we're going
to play a little video here thank you.

Technology can bring financial services
closer to women mobile phones and

banking even this can reduce
the risk the cost and

the distance of financial transactions for
women women face a number of barriers

in their access to financial services
they often have limited mobility in

the inability to leave their home in
Mother we mean the most celebrated We know

it's their sports ability as
the House could do some business and

do household watercraft at this
same time so we looked at that and

didn't do it to really have much to do or
out where our service does.

Quite a distance so you know to me and
to her you know we do total

the support that we have being
distributed to the customers

through what we call agents and
it is the agents out of a kit to do with.

The vicinity or.

People leave so it should be global
a very small distance to get to.

Hint and

to do by transaction it's actually a good
sign that I'm not going to get off.

And write them from.

My bank my coming up we.

Did not.

Have my bank when I signed I spent
thank you for 10 days because of my.

Physical today.

We think that's wrong.

To kill most of the mathematics
to do the job and

get to the next Mark we think and
technology is allowing

financial service providers to bring
their services directly to the ones

we're seeing great success with digital
tools in terms of in field account opening

doorstep service collection and we're
now starting to see partnerships where.

Existing informal savings groups are
partnering with banks to bring more women

into the formal financial system this
is a financial services represent

a huge opportunity to close the gender
gap and financial inclusion but

what happens to them are all they've
got for moving on money from you know

people that would have known by the when
you get it right if you are all gone wow.

It's getting cheaper it's clearly more
flexible and you to helps you track so

it gives you history so make a footprint
on the customer and helps you we find you

put up you know better than physical we
ever do we've seen a real shift at women's

world banking and then today almost all
of the projects at least the 10 have some

digital component because we really
believe that digital financial

services can be the key to closing
the gender gap in financial inclusion.

So I always love an excuse to watch
that video Yeah I think no one will hear

it for ever.

Partly to see deputy governor
of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Who is here with us today advocating for

women's financial inclusion back
in her former life as a banker and

partly to see in walk that woman at
the end of the video with a particularly

electric smile I was fortunate
enough to meet a few years

ago in Lego's she runs a busy fruit stall
in an open market open air market there.

She tried to save for years so that she
could expand her business into a bigger

fruit stall but she struggled to have
enough money left at the end of the month

to pay her children's school fees which
was her absolute top priority let alone

invest in her business walk by told us
she needed a safe place to save that had

3 important characteristics it had to be
convenient because she didn't have time to

leave her business to go stand in line at
a bank branch that had to be confidential

because she didn't want her husband or her
neighbors knowing how much she'd saved or

what she was saving for and it had to
be more secure than say than carrying

cash from her shop to her home
to hide under her mattress.

But want also talked about a kind
of emotional distance from the bank

when she said that she didn't think a bank
would be for her since she doubted she

would be treated with dignity and
respect by the branch staff so

it was very fortuitous that Diamond Bank
the 4th largest corporate bank in Nigeria

at the time made the strategic decision
to move into the retail market and

saw the competitive opportunity in
expanding their presence to low income

clients through digital financial services
Diamond Bank came to women's world banking

to understand and
reach potential clients like walk.

So together we designed a savings
account called betta that offered

all of the benefits of confidentiality and
security that walked out was looking for

as well as convenience since as you heard
her say transactions could be managed

through her cell phone we also addressed
that emotional distance that she and

so many other women had told us about
by creating a group of account officers

called better friends that visited
diamond customers businesses

to help them open accounts and
provide some basic financial education.

Within 3 years time over 600000
better accounts were opened and

while the original expectation was that
the better friends would simply get

the customer started on their journey and
would be quickly replaced by cell phone

transactions the friends of soon emerged
as the preferred savings channel

mobilising close to 70 percent of
better account deposits this balance

of technology and the human touch
were essential to building trust and

reinforcing savings behavior this outcome
and the introduction of the better product

were made possible by regulators at the
Central Bank of Nigeria who realized that

women like Walker were being excluded from
the financial system by the cumbersome and

complex layers of no your customer or
k y c documentation

that had traditionally been necessary
to apply for a bank account.

Now make no mistake k y c and customer did
customer due diligence remain an important

part of the customer onboarding
process regulators and

bankers alike seek to prevent
abuse of the financial system and

deter the laundering of ill gotten gains
through financial accounts by requiring

customers to identify themselves
upon opening an account nevertheless

excessively stringent customer due
diligence requirements can exclude a woman

like me from the financial system simply
because she lacks the full suite of

identification documentation that
might otherwise be required given that

her account balances and transactions
are likely to remain low in value and

therefore most likely will not involve
money laundering activities regulators and

standard setting bodies have recognized
that institutions can risk adjust their k

y c requirements in such cases to reflect
the lower level of money laundering or

tech terrorist financing risk that's
intice a pated with such account holders.

Nigeria was one of the 1st markets to
introduce what is often called tiered k.y.

see requiring customers with lower value
balances like walk to provide only

basic information like their name address
gender telephone number and place and

date of birth to be able to use a bank
account that innovation of simplifying

the k y c requirements for lower risk
customers was a critical in Viet Nam and

for financial inclusion in Nigeria there
may be other standards where a risk

adjusted approach may make sense to help
expand access to financial services among

women the poor the unbanked and
other marginalized groups when drafting

new regulations or when evaluating
existing regulations central bankers and

regulators should consider whether
those rules may unnecessarily impede

access to financial services for women
where the risks to the financial system or

the broader economy may be quite low in
some areas that come immediately to mind

include the following There are important
changes that regulators can make to their

country's credit infrastructure namely
through the establishment of credit and

movable collateral registries
that can help to close

the $285000000000.00 credit gap for
women lead small businesses.

Of the $189.00 economies surveyed by the
World Bank's women business in the last

report 50 have neither
a public credit registry nor

a private credit bureau that serves more
than 5 percent of the adult population and

where registries do exist they typically
cover only large balance loans effectively

depriving women business owners of
the opportunity to build credit histories.

In addition the introduction of moveable
collateral registries can be a boon for

increasing women's access to capital
women are far less likely and

in some countries even legally
prevented from owning land or

built property and Maybelline financial
service providers to underwrite loans

using movable assets like machinery
equipment livestock crops inventory even

receivables as collateral can be a game
changer for women small business owners.

Regulators also must address the very
real pop problems of account dormancy

those impressive financial inclusion
gains I cited from the Global Fund x.

a few moments ago they simply
reflect account openings and

they define an active account
as one that merely has

a single transaction in the preceding
12 months that's hardly what any

of us would consider active
customer engagement in India for

example where we've seen huge progress
in the opening of new accounts

has over 55 percent of accounts
held by women as dormant

this high rate of dormancy speaks to the
need to create products that meet women's

needs and are relevant to their
lives women don't want and

are unlikely to engage with pink
products Rather they want products that

reflect the convenience confidentiality
and security that walk pup mentioned and

they also want financial service providers
to understand their need for flexibility

particularly if they are working in the
informal sector and have irregular incomes

and one last broad area where significant
work remains is in the area of identity

women who lack appropriate identity
documentation may be unable to open

accounts or even to purchase a sim
card for their mobile phone.

According to the World Bank's id for

development program 45 percent of
women lack identity in lower and

even middle income countries in some
countries live births of girls aren't

even registered while central banks are
generally not the authority that oversees

identity policy central bankers
could become powerful advocates for

expanding access to identity for
women because it is one of the biggest

impediments to their participation in the
financial system and Quansah currently in

the formal economy so I've now shared with
you the 3 areas where I'd really like

to challenge all of you to bring the a
gender lens to your discussions today and

tomorrow as you think about the risks and
opportunities that the central bank of

the future may face especially
when promoting financial inclusion

1st as some of the most data driven
public institutions and central banks and

financial regulators must do a better job
collecting and analyzing data in order to

understand how women are and are not
being served by the financial sector

to build a more inclusive financial system
and a more inclusive economy central banks

need to consider the impact that policy
reforms can have on all citizens and

where women's experience might be
quite different from those of men.

2nd when drafting new regulations or
evaluating existing ones

I urged central bankers and financial
regulators to consider whether regulations

could help to promote financial inclusion
as well as financial stability or

at the very least whether regulation
should not serve shouldn't serve as

an unnecessary deterrent to inclusion and
especially to the inclusion of women

who constitute the vast majority
of the unbanked today and

then 3rd when seeking to promote
women's financial inclusion

central bankers regulators and industry
need to consider what products and

services are most important to addressing
the needs of women in developing countries

while some work has already be done
been done on savings products more work

is ahead to close the credit gap for women
and to address the unintended consequences

in product regulate product related
regulations such as the treatment of

dormant accounts collateral and
even that broader issue of identity

how can we prepare central banks and
financial regulators to address these

areas of focus with a gender lens as they
build the central bank of the future

studies have shown that the greater
the focus on diversity and gender parity

within regulatory institutions the greater
the emphasis on women as clients and

as leaders within the financial
institutions they oversee

what's more there's a growing
body of research like the i.m.f.

spanking on women leaders study
led by rightness the high

suggesting that higher shares of women on
the boards of banking supervision agencies

is associated with greater bank stability.

We know that diversity drives better
decision making in fact failing to

have a variety of profiles and
perspectives around the table as well as

having gender parity leads to riskier
decisions and weaker institutions

that's why this year women's world banking
launched our 1st leadership in diversity

for regulators program it's a global
offering designed in partnership with

the Alliance for financial inclusion and
taught by women's world banking and

faculty members from Oxford University
side business school the course brings

together senior officials from central
banks and other regulatory agencies

together with high potential women from
those respective institutions in a 9 month

leadership program each senior official
identifies a policy initiative to

sponsor at their institution that's
related to serving the women's market and

then works with a high potential woman
leader to implement that initiative while

simultaneously supporting her professional
development during and after the program

for instance in this year's program
the central bank of Egypt has worked to

develop a clear plan to promote women's
economic empowerment and I'm delighted to

see deputy governor Loba novella
excuse me hello in the audience today

their strategy was quite comprehensive
It includes initiatives to measure

the levels of women's representation
across various sectors review gender

based pay gaps conduct unconscious
gender bias training and initiate

support programs to build female talent
pipelines across the banking sector.

Another example comes from the central
banker for Wanda where they also developed

an impressive strategy to advance women's
financial inclusion by using digital

financial services to accelerate the
formal financial inclusion of traditional

smart savings groups by using digital
technology to map stakeholders and

facilitate data collection the central
bank plans to financially include

$220000.00 women in formal financial
institutions in the coming year

I find these initiatives
particularly exciting and

inspiring because we're seeing the central
banks challenging themselves to think more

expansively about their mandate to drive
inclusion beyond the narrow confines

of regulation from Egypt looking to drive
behavior change in the entire sector that

they're regulating to all Rwanda looking
to bring traditional savings groups

into the digital world in collaboration
with the private sector one central

banks financial regulators standard
setters and industry focus on these 3

areas gender desegregated data regulations
that promote financial stability and

inclusion and products and
services appropriate for women

what can we realistically expect
as outcomes I'd suggest that

we ask Waka the near Nigerian fruit
seller to serve as an inspiration for

us she was once a merchant struggling
to earn a living wage and pay for

her children's school fees but
thanks to the foresight

of local regulators who recognized
that some of their own regulations

were unnecessarily excluding
unbanked individuals such as one.

And thanks to the innovations of financial
service providers who are willing to

re-evaluate their product offerings and
develop more appropriate tools for

potential customers like walk she
is literally a changed woman today.

She went from believing that banks had
no interest in her business prospects

to becoming an active saver in a bank

she expresses great pride in her financial
a compliment cop complements and

she's quick to encourage her friends and
families to open their own better accounts

of her savings helped her to expand her
business such that she's now looking for

that larger stall in a busier part
of the market her growing success

unable to her to pay those school fees
that she once found so daunting so much so

that all of her children are finishing
their secondary schooling with plans to

attend university something that Walker
who had only minimal schooling herself

never imagined might be possible for
all of her kids countless

women like walk around the world
are doing their best to provide their for

their families with limited or no access
to financial services today let's do our

part to make sure that they can improve
their ability to save to borrow and

to conduct payments efficiently and
safely let's help them

create their own means to lift themselves
and their families out of poverty

let's empower them to pursue
participate more fully

in the formal economy and

in broader society the central bank of
the future has a stake in these women

just as these women have a stake in the
central bank of the future thank you so

much for your attention I know I am
the things standing between you and

the cocktail party but if you'd like to
ask some questions I'd be delighted to

to continue the conversation thank you so
much.

I think that during his
working pretty good.

That is a better all right Hi I'm Brian
Ricketts I'm a current public policy and

business student here at the university
I just want to thank you for

being here thank you Doc I wanted to
ask you if if you'd seen banks who

were working to be more inclusive on
the consumer facing side they've got these

deposits Do you also see the same impacts
with what they do on those deposits

it's a really great question
in fact if anything we find it

easier to sell banks on the credit
opportunity than we do on

the savings opportunities so we've
become very big proponents of bundling.

Product opportunities because as I
mentioned the women really do want

that safe place to save but the banks
want to make money by lending to them so

that bundling can really
make all the difference.

I wondering if you could give
us some advice about how do

you engage mobilize energize
the people on the ground

to get involved in a conversation
about the central bank of the future

I mean in your experience what is
it is there a way to translate.

People's you know real live need for

better financial services
into mobilization for change.

Well I think the fact that you've been
able to bring so many regulators from

developing economies to this to this
venue in this conference says a lot about

the excitement and certainly our of
our regulators program we were just

blown away by the enthusiasm that I
think there's a tremendous desire

to reach those who are on Reach there's
a very keen understanding of last mile

issues I found amongst
the the regulators that we talked to and

I so I do think that raising awareness is
probably those the single best thing that

we we can do making it
clear that this is a market

that can be served that these
are valuable customers who are.

Just in terms of this sheer scale of
serving them can make it very very

important difference to the financial
system that's I'd say that's really my

Our experience is just making it making
the awareness and we're not the only ones

doing that obviously the global phonetics
and many of you in the room have been

big contributors there but it's least
marks perience as when the regulators

are aware of the scale of the issue there
they're eager to join in the conversation.

Thank you very much Mary and
thank you very inspiring keynote

to good little newts to memories
of the path life you know.

Some of the most of the examples here have
to do with how women's world banking is

working with banks Trojan banks part of
the conversations we had at the Tuesday or

meetings we're looking at some of
these other participants that are not

trying to tional financial institutions
can you speak a **** at all about

what women's will banking is doing
with these alternatives should I think

it's provided that I've not tried to no
bank and where you see an opportunity for

them to you know take financial
inclusion further because perhaps.

What is seen in the high domain Siri
may be a dissatisfaction with what

the trying to shut off when and
also with what you think policymakers and

how policymakers can and connect to it
these are the providers to fame way in

some of these examples you had to have the
central banks and the punishable by does

you know come up with an reduce Lucian's
how can we then take that for the 2 D's

nontraditional financial service providers
that's a really great question and

we're only just starting to work with
some of these newer providers but one

thing that's been really interesting and
actually we're seeing this maybe a little

bit more on our Impact Investment Fund
than we are in the angio activities but

we've seen this sort of trend where fin
techs who are sort of in their series b.

round coming to us saying we never
thought we didn't plan to have a majority

of women clients but when we look at
who's you know alternative credit

scoring model companies alternative
lending platforms peer to peer lending

platforms have been terrific for women and
a lot of the countries we work in and

the the entrepreneurs who
are setting up the company and

now we're trying to raise a 2nd round of
funding are realizing that's who that's

who they're they're banking now we have
real concerns about digital credit and

the consumer protection issues
around that and that's that's been

another really important part of our
dialogue with those companies and

where I think regulatory bodies
absolutely have to stay focused I mean

Women's World Banking had its origins
in the micro finance industry and

I fear that some of what's going on
in digital credit today is worse than

anything we saw on the micro finance
industry in terms of overindebtedness and

interest rates and and.

And now frankly n.p.l.

for for those institutions so

I think that there is a huge
possibility but particularly for women.

If you know you've seen in
the some of the pays you go.

A solar business is now really looking
much more like a financial service

companies and we've been in guys in
a few of them about their offerings

you know once that woman has that asset
of the solar lamp that she's been making

payments diligently for and some of the
pays you go energy companies are reporting

to credit bureaus to allow those
women to to build credit histories

they're starting to make loans
with the solar lamp says

as collateral Interestingly one of them
came to us recently and said the men all

want to borrow for television sets
the women all want agricultural inputs and

education and so
you know some things never change but

I think there's just a huge
opportunity there for for those but

I'd say making sure that people
are protected that the digital literacy is

there as well as the financial literacy in
the consumer protection it is in place b.

I see Job one.

I'm seeing there wrap it up sign here
Kristie yeah thank you all very much

thank you thank you.