Financial technology, including the use of alternative data to generate credit scores, has enabled many underserved customers around the world to access financial services for the first time.
But to ensure that women benefit, governments, financial service providers, and the development community must consider “what data are being collected and how those data [falling] ... along gender lines could unintentionally or intentionally have an impact on women’s access to credit,” said Sonja Kelly, global lead for research at Women’s World Banking, a nonprofit focused on financial inclusion for women.
Women are more likely than men to lack credit history information. They are also less likely to own mobile phones or smartphones, meaning they might not see as much benefit from alternative credit scoring algorithms that rely on these devices. The mobile gender gap is just one example of how women could have either the most to gain or the most to lose as digital tools open up new opportunities for access to credit.