All over the developing world, women have successfully made it in business. But they are a small group of women — only 30 percent of formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world are owned and run by women. Seventy percent of formal women-owned SMEs in developing countries are either shut out of financial institutions or can’t get the capital they need.

This results in a nearly $300 billion annual credit deficit for formal women-owned SMEs. It is nearly impossible to sustain a business without access to capital. Lack of networks, knowledge, and links to high value markets further limit female entrepreneurship in developing countries.

We-Fi intends to change those statistics. Its holistic approach will help women in developing countries gain increased access to the finance, markets, and networks necessary to start and grow a business.
World Bank Statement on Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative We-Fi

Liza Donnelly

Notes to Worldbank Editors

• The facility will be established as a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) at the Bank, drawing on the Bank’s extensive experience housing such Funds.
• The Bank and IFC will be Implementing Partners, as well as other Multilateral Development Banks that would propose private and public sector activities to be supported by the We-Fi facility.
• While she helped initiate the idea for the facility and has been a strong advocate for the issue of women’s entrepreneurship, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump will play no operational or fundraising role in the facility.

New World Bank Group Facility to Enable more than $1 billion for Women Entrepreneurship.

To help unlock the potential of women entrepreneurs, the new Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative We-Fi will enable more than $1 billion in financing to improve access to capital, provide technical assistance, and invest in projects and programs that support women and women-led SMEs in World Bank Group client countries.

Women Entrepreneurs Face Many Challenges

• It is estimated that women-owned entities represent just over 30 percent of formal, registered businesses worldwide.
• Yet, seventy percent of women-owned SMEs in developing countries are either shut out by financial institutions or are unable to receive financial services on adequate terms to meet their needs. This results in a nearly $300 billion annual credit deficit to formal women-owned SMEs.
• Lack of networks, knowledge, and links to high value markets further constrain female entrepreneurship.
• Moreover, unfavorable business and regulatory environments are among the barriers that still impede women entrepreneurs from accessing finance.
• The fact that many emerging markets financial institutions have yet to develop a sustainable strategy to address this significant market gap represents a missed opportunity and constrains private sector development.

The competent committee, which will determine the operational measures of the Facility and the award criteria, will meet for the first time this October.

Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative
New World Bank Group Facility to Enable more than $1 billion for Women Entrepreneurship
Documents: W20 Summit 2017 / Berlin 
Argentina will host next:  W20 Summit 2018

Notes to Worldbank Editors

• The facility will be established as a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) at the Bank, drawing on the Bank’s extensive experience housing such Funds.
• The Bank and IFC will be Implementing Partners, as well as other Multilateral Development Banks that would propose private and public sector activities to be supported by the We-Fi facility.
• While she helped initiate the idea for the facility and has been a strong advocate for the issue of women’s entrepreneurship, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump will play no operational or fundraising role in the facility.
  

  Cartoon courtesy of Peter Lewis and the Newcastle Herald
  www.livecaricatures.com.au

Women Are Finding Slow But Steady Progress in Finance. Female executives are seeing more positive shifts in their quest for full equality.

Jeff Bounds reports: After coming to Dallas early in her banking career, Carla Brooks got a surprise at a private club atop a downtown skyscraper, where a man had invited her for a business lunch. “We had to go to a separate dining room where women were allowed,” the Midwest native says of that late 1970s episode. “The main dining room was part of the men’s section.” Things have changed for women executives like Brooks, who today manages private equity funds’ investments in banks for Dallas-based Commerce Street Investment Management.

Where finding women in the boss’ office was once scarce, Elaine Agather, who helms both the 12,000-employee North Texas operation for JPMorgan Chase and the 200-employee southern region of its private bank, says she not only has a female boss, but sees women running the company’s consumer bank and credit card business.

“It’s not been directed from above,” Agather says about women’s high-level roles at Chase. “It’s because we have received opportunities and the support to be successful here.”
Despite decades of diversity efforts, management and executive roles in banking and finance remain male-dominated, an issue that crosses industries and job duties. In 2015, women made up 2.8 percent of CEOs in 60 finance and insurance companies in the S&P 500, according to Catalyst, a New York-based research and advocacy nonprofit….Women are finding progress in Finance

Effective Financial Literacy: What Youths Need to Know, When They Need to Know It. Emily Appel-Newby reports:  Almost 20 percent of all young people around age 15 are not financially literate — they don’t have skills like budgeting income and expenses, pulling a credit report or understanding the terms of a credit card. Young people who live in lower-income homes are even less likely to be financially literate. Research also indicates that the benefits associated with typical financial education classes are often short-lived: Participants gain some immediate short-term knowledge, but their ability to translate that knowledge into practice later is less likely.

The CFPB developed the toolkit in 2014 so that frontline staff who work directly with clients have ready-made, practical tools to help them build financial skills. The toolkit, which is free and available on the CFPB’s website, contains more than 35 tools that can be used with a variety of clients at different stages of life, including those getting their first jobs and transitioning to living independently. Tools are arranged in nine modules:

• Setting goals and planning for large purchases.
• Saving for emergencies, bills and goals.
• Tracking and managing income and benefits.
• Paying bills and other expenses.
• Getting through the month (cash flow).
• Dealing with debt.
• Understanding credit reports and scores.
• Money services, cards, accounts and loans.
• Protecting your money.

Effective Financial Literacy

Wilhelm Busch: Teacher Lämpel (from Max and Moritz)

– but there are a lot less of them.

New data shows that the median pay for female CEOs was $1.5 million more than their male counterparts.

Women CEOs earned big bucks last year, but there’s still very few of them running the world’s largest companies.

The median pay for a female CEO was $13.1 million last year, up 9 percent from 2015, according to an analysis by executive data firm Equilar and The Associated Press. By comparison, male CEOs earned $11.4 million, also up 9 percent.

But the number of women in CEO roles has barely budged. Just 6 percent of the top paid CEOs in the U.S. last year were women, according to the Equilar and AP analysis, a slight increase from about 5 percent in 2015 and 2014.

The highest paid woman was Virginia Rometty of International Business Machines Corp., bumping out Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer from the top spot. Rometty earned $32.3 million last year from the technology company, a 63 percent jump from the year before, mainly due to $12.1 million in stock option awards she didn’t receive in 2015. Highest-paid female CEO? IBM’s Rometty tops Yahoo’s Mayer
Women and Paid Work