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Research has shown that women are powerful yet often overlooked consumers. And such data was not lost on Standard Chartered Bank. At a time of increasing global competition, Standard Chartered was doing well—but it was looking to differentiate itself and conquer a new consumer segment. So, when the bank’s senior staff came across research on the benefits of gender equality, engaging women as consumers became a business imperative and a central feature in Standard Chartered’s business strategy.

In the context of what is possible and what has been done, there still exists a huge gap when it comes to financing women. This is clearly a challenge due to a multitude of reasons. Traditionally, it has been a question of the ambition of women, a kind of prevailing unfairness of society, and customs that have made things more difficult. So, we tried to work on this front and create differentiated opportunities for women.

Being a global company that operates in diverse regions, an important lesson for Standard Chartered Bank was to recognize the need to tailor women’s banking products to specific regional and country needs, given the vastly different cultural and legislative environments that usually affect a woman’s financial situation in different parts of the world.

As a result, the bank’s consumer banking offerings differ greatly from region to region. For instance, women-only branches work well for India and Pakistan, as women here feel safer doing transactions among each other. In many African countries, too, women have traditionally faced greater challenges in accessing finance than men have; thus, it made sense to launch women-specific accounts to attract a customer base that may have otherwise been reluctant to approach the bank.

On the whole, our first priority was to make sure that we establish a banking environment that makes women feel secure. In Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, in particular, we found that women are very comfortable banking with us in our all-women branches. Additionally, we try to customize products so as to have a unique differentiation for women.

True, providing finance solutions for women continues to be a problem around the world. However, there are a few institutes that now treat financing women as a CSR activity—and there’s a growing realization that microfinance is a very profitable standalone business. Standard Chartered now has Rs.2,439 crore as microfinance, of which  81 percent of the beneficiaries are women. The bank also has a scheme called Orjon in Bangladesh and Nigeria, which provides unsecured loans to women entrepreneurs at subsidized interest rates. Unfortunately, we do not have this scheme in India as yet, but we are exploring offering it here, too.

Owing to our diversity and inclusion efforts, 21 percent of the senior managers and 34 percent of middle managers at Standard Chartered Bank today are women. Also, women CEOs run our country offices in diverse markets across the world, such as in Lebanon, Zambia and China.

I think the biggest problem right now in terms of women becoming financially sound is that adolescent girls are not being provided with the right inputs. It is during this time period that they are most vulnerable to social pressures, educational challenges or harassment. Therefore, an investment at that point in their lives would be extremely beneficial for them in the long term, giving them the opportunity to establish financial stability for their futures.

With this in mind, Standard Chartered started a program called Goal in 2006 in a village outside Delhi. Our objective is to reach out to one lakh young girls by 2013. We have subsequently taken the program to many countries around the world as well. The Goal program does two things: it provides girls with financial knowledge and empowers them through confidence-building programs. The latter is achieved through informal education on critical life skills such as financial literacy, communication, health and hygiene as well as training in sports like netball. The bank also encourages its employees to participate in this program. Typically, employees who volunteer help design or deliver training, set up netball games, or assist with monitoring and evaluation.

Greater financial literacy among girls will ultimately have a multiplier effect and trigger larger, positive ramifications for economic development. Of course, people continue to be skeptical and fail to see the potential that this segment holds. Then again, around 15 years ago, when the telecom industry made its advent into the world, it was nearly impossible for telecom companies to convince credit institutes to lend them money on the basis of the number of their subscribers, minutes of usage, etc. Until then, people were used to looking at inventories, collaterals and such—things that they could physically touch and see. Telecom companies, on the other hand, dealt with something completely abstract. Today, every bank and every financial institution is into telecom financing.

Standard Chartered’s employee base of 75,000 is spread across more than 120 countries with a gender ratio of 50:50. We are very proud to have such a diverse mix within the company. The real efforts have been in leveraging this diversity and to be far more inclusive. And it certainly helps when your workforce is aligned to the requirements of your customer base in these changing times by being creative and innovative.

As told to Pranbihanga Borpuzari.

JASPAL BINDRA is the Chief Executive Officer, Asia, of Standard Chartered Bank.

©Entrepreneur October 2010

Tags:
business strategy, CSR, Goal, microfinance, Standard Chartered, women