so welcome back everybody and welcome to our new guests we've I 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 online or new to the audience on Michael bar I'm the faculty director of the Center on finance law and policy as well as the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy 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 including governor's deputy governors of central banks and former governors including we'll have with us tomorrow governor Inga's from the Riggs Bank in Sweden deputy governor Timothy Lane who's been with us today and will be with us tomorrow from the Bank of Canada deputy governor halau from the Central Bank of Egypt deputy governor Ahmad from the Central Bank of Nigeria and former governor and dingo from the Central Bank of Kenya we have an outstanding lineup of speakers joining us over the next couple of days policymakers fin tech 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 IMF C gap financial health network and others as many of you know this is a small part of a larger research project that Adrian and I are conducting and partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is looking to illuminate 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 where those who live in rural areas or lack permanent address or don't have identification whether it leads to fewer services or less affordable options that's a result of the decisions that will be making now and many decades into the future the experts who will be presenting over the next few days to her 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 for the discussion and as part of that we hope this conference will inspire you to submit a proposal to present and 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 packets that I'd like to call your attention to first the university of michigan's FinTech collaboratory has issued a request for proposals to fund interdisciplinary research papers courses and educational initiatives around the university with an emphasis on blockchain applications second this Friday the fourth is the deadline for the U of M students to register for the 2019 Ross FinTech challenge it's a pitch pitch competition where students can win cash for developing finished cash for developing a FinTech solution to modern business problems with the potential for social impact third you'll also find in your packet for a flyer for October 18th U of M's innovation and action is hosting a Financial Inclusion design Jam where 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 four hours I want to go over a few additional details for the next couple of days you are in Palmer Commons in the Great Lakes room the hallway you walked through was the atrium we're hearing obviously in just a moment from Mary Ellen is Guderian and following her address will be holding an opening reception in the atrium that is open to everyone tomorrow morning we'll spend most of the day and the auditorium called forum hall John Tesar from the financial health network will get us started and we'll have a full day of four 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 mic 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 – hello – our online viewers already before we get to introductions of our keynote speaker we'd like to thank a number of people who making this event possible our collaborators in this larger eventual venture Michael Wiegand Chris Columbia Himanshu NOC Paul and Kyle will sing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-sponsors the Ford School of Public Policy and the raw schools business plus impact our student group co-sponsors domestic policy core in Michigan FinTech and of course all of you our speakers and participants today we'd also like to thank the CFL piece staff Christie Baer and Tracy Van Dusen who you've all had great interactions with in 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 Hayley Phillips Kat Johnson Glen bubala of the impact studio and business plus impact and all of the Center on finance law and policies Ras who you've seen throughout the conference and have been helping you along your journey as well but especially our designers Jay Campbell Julia Lauer and Elisabeth Felder Berger and our core research team Ashton Jennifer Callie Cole Lucas Karan and Michael and now let me begin our formal part of the day by introducing our wonderful keynote speaker for the afternoon Mary Ellen escandarian million is president and CEO woman's world banking the global nonprofit devoted to giving more 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 Women'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 and 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 as a member of the Women's Forum of New York and the business and sustainable development commission shields an MBA from the Yale School of Management into Bachelor of Science and International Economics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service please welcome me in joining Mary Ellen [Applause] 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 governors former governors and other luminaries I'd also like to acknowledge the long hours hard work and attention to detail that Christy bear Tracy Van Deusen and Ashton 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 am i yeah echoing a bit here of do you want to fix this or should I keep going let's see if that's any better well 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 role each of you play as a 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 in reevaluated in the last decade as regulators have questioned just how stable a financial system can actually be if 80% of our 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 findex 1.2 billion adults have obtained a financial services account since 2011 including 515 million just since 2014 between 2014 and 2017 the share of adults who have an account with a financial institution or through a mobile money service rose 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 remains 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 2017 findex that 1.7 billion 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 – attention to is the fact that the majority of these unbanked adults nearly a billion 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 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 were 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 proaches approaches there are a few specific issues that can have a disproportionate effect on women and today I'd like to address three of them with you first let's talk about numbers and data central banks and financial regulators are among the most data-driven institutions in the public sector but few 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 economy it will be important for central banks and regulators to gather and analyze gender disaggregated data second 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 outcomes strike me as the things that could be critical to promoting sustainable and inclusive growth an economy which is an increasingly relevant goal among many central banks as my third focus I'd like to discuss with you some of the practical things that central bankers regulators standard setters and other policymakers as well as industry can do to ensure that women are able to pursue to participate in the formal financial system here I'd like to emphasize the specific products and services that may best serve the needs of women especially those in developing countries i'll reshare i'll share some of the results of Women's World banking field research and initiatives in this area with regard to these three areas of focus sex disaggregated 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 first 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 disaggregated financial data we cannot move the needle on financial inclusion let alone reach that 1.7 billion unbanked adults without knowing who they are and designing targeted strategies to reach them banks will never realize the markets they're overlooking unless they truly know whom they're serving and mobile network operators are no better more than half of the telcos offering mobile wallets today do not disaggregate 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 sex disaggregated financial decade having financial data for more than a decade the quality and depth of financial reporting and the banking superintendent gets 100% 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 they're finding that women held a higher percentage of housing loans while men held more consumer loans and that women were better repairs greatly influenced the design of a highly successful affordable housing scheme today women make up 62% of that programs 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 IMF's decision to require gender disaggregated data in its annual financial access survey but we need to do more a second area for your consideration relates directly to your core mission as regulators implementing sound regulatory policy to ensure financial stability while the IMF has been cautious about endorsing the macro economic benefits of financial inclusion they have very clearly stated that in developing countries increased account ownership and saving at a formal financial institution can significantly affect macroeconomic stability particularly in times of financial stress the question I'd like to pose today is whether there's room in regulatory 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 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 nutrition 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% increase in financial resources under a woman's control there was a 1% 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% 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 policymakers 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'd 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 that the long-established positive links between gender equality and a country's per capita GDP its level of competitiveness the competitiveness its expenditures on school enrollment and a range of other human development into haters 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 third area of focus namely the products and services that are most helpful to women's financial inclusion Women's World Rankings field work along with 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 woman tell you themselves we're gonna play a little video here thank you technology can bring financial services closer to women mobile phones and banking agents can reduce the risk the cost and the distance angel' transactions for women women faced a number of barriers in their access to financial services they often have limited mobility and inability to leave the home in Manoa women mostly breadwinners they have got a lot of responsibilities they have to do some businesses do household work at the same time so we looked at that and say they do not really have much time to go out where our service centers are which is normally quite a distance so in order to save the money and the time we developed this product which is being distributed to the customers through what we call agent and these agents are located within the vicinity of where these people live such that they have to offer a very small distance to get to the bank you find a city car so behind physical disfigurement [Music] technology is allowing financial service providers to bring their services directly to the woman 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 digital financial services represent a huge opportunity to close the gender gap and Financial Inclusion but doctor said for us that saved us from losing our money from you know people that would just know but this one you get it right into your phone Wow it's Kelly cheaper it's clearly more flexible and Utah helps you track so it gives you a history so like a footprint of the customer and it helps you refine your products you know better than physical would ever do we've seen a real shift at Women's World banking and that today almost all of the projects that were engaged in have some digital component because we really believe that digital financial services can be the key to closing the gender gap and financial inclusion [Music] so I always love an excuse to watch the video yeah I think partly to see deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Ayesha IMed who's here with us today advocating for women's Financial Inclusion back in her former life as a banker and partly too seen waka that woman at the end of the video with a particularly electric smile I was fortunate enough to meet Norah a few years ago in Lagos 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 aqua told us she needed a safe place to save that had three 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 it 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 safe than carrying cash from her shop to her home to hide under her mattress but WAPA 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 fourth 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 guapa so together we designed a savings account called betta that offered all of the benefits of confidentiality and security that new octo was looking for as well as convenience since as you heard her say actions could be managed through her cellphone we also addressed that emotional distance that she and so many other women had told us about by creating a group of account cold better friends that visited diamond customers businesses to help them open accounts and provide some basic financial education within three years time over six hundred thousand meta accounts were opened and while the original expectation was that the becca friends would simply get the customer started on their journey and would be quickly replaced by cellphone transactions the friends soon emerged as the preferred savings channel mobilizing close to 70% of meta 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 betta product were made possible by regulators at the Central Bank of Nigeria who realized that women like maka were being excluded from the financial system by the cumbersome and complex layers of no your customer or kyc documentation that had traditionally been necessary to apply for a bank account now make no mistake k YC e and customer to 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 no Appa 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 KYC requirements in such cases to reflect the lower level of money laundering or terrorist financing risks that's anticipated with such accountholders Nigeria was one of the first markets to introduce what is often called tiered kyc requiring customers with lower value balances like Moapa 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 KYC requirements for lower risk customers was a critical invent advancement 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 are 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 the financial system or the broader economy may be quite low 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 moveable collateral registries that can help to close the 285 billion dollar credit gap for women LED small businesses of the hundred and eighty nine economies surveyed by the world bank's women business and the law report 50 have neither a public credit registry nor a private credit bureau that serves more than 5% of the adult population and where registries do exist they typically cover only large balanced loans effectively depriving women business owners of the opportunity to build credit histories in addition the introduction of movable 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 naval in 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 problem of account dormancy those impressive Financial Inclusion gains I cited from the Global findex 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% of accounts held by women as dormant this high rate of dormancy speaks to the need to create products that meet woman'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 new aqua 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 id4 Development Programme 45% 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 finance system and consequently in the formal economy so I've now shared with you the three areas where I'd really like to challenge all of you to bring 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 first as some of the most data-driven public institutions 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 second when drafting new regulations or evaluating existing ones I urge 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 regulations 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 third 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 been 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 Fen institutions they oversee what's more there's a growing body of research like the IMF spanking on women leaders study led by rottenness a 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 first leadership and 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's Sayyid 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 the 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 Lola NOLA excuse me lobna 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 unconcious gender bias training and initiate support programs to build female talent pipelines across the banking sector another example comes from their central bank of Rwanda 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 220,000 women in formal financial institutions in the coming year I find these initiatives particularly exciting and inspiring because we're seeing these 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 rural Rwanda looking to bring traditional savings groups into the digital world in collaboration with the private sector when central banks financial regulators standard setters and Industry focus on these three areas gender disaggregated 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 new okhla than your 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 some of their own regulations were unnecessarily excluding unbanked individuals such as mauka and thanks to the innovations of financial service providers who were willing to reevaluate their product offerings and develop more appropriate tools for potential customers like guava 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 compliments and she's quick to encourage her friends and families to open their own vet accounts 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 enabled 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 Wacha who had only minimal schooling herself never imagined might be possible for all of her kids countless women like Mokpo around the world are doing their best to provide there 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 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 [Applause] I think that drink is looking pretty good yeah oh that is that better all right hi I'm Ryan 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 I wanted to ask if if you'd seen banks who were working to be more inclusive on the like consumer facing side then they've got these deposits do you also see those 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 opportunity 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 to engage mobilize energize people on the ground to get involved in a conversation about the central bank of the future in your experience what is it is there 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 and this conference says a lot about the excitement and certainly our our regulators program we were just blown away by the enthusiasm though I think there's a tremendous desire to reach those who are unreached there's a very keen understanding of last-mile issues I've found amongst the the regulator's that we talk to and I so I do think the raising awareness is probably 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 you know just in terms of the sheer scale of serving them can make a 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 findex and many of you in the room have been big contributors there but it's at least more experiences when the regulator's are aware of the scale of the issue they're they're eager to join in the conversation thank you very much Marie thanks to us that's a very inspiring keynote I took a little notes to remind myself of the past life you know some of the most of the examples here have to do with how Women's World banking is working with banks traditional banks part of the conversations we had at the closed-door meetings or looking at some of these other participants that are not traditional financial institutions can you speak a bit at all about what humans or banking is doing with these alternatives should I see service providers that are not traditional banks and where you see an opportunity for them to you know take financial inclusion further because perhaps what we have seen in the high dormancy rates may be a dissatisfaction with what the traditional offering is and also what you think policymakers and how policymakers can connect with these other providers do the same way in some of these examples you have to have the central banks and the financial providers you know come up with innovative solutions how can we then take that further to these non-traditional 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 NGO activities but we've seen this sort of trend where Tech's who are sort of in their Series B round coming to us saying we never 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 of the entrepreneurs who are setting up the company and now we're at trying to raise a second round of funding are realizing you know that's who that's who they're 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 microfinance industry and and I fear that some of what's going on in digital credit today is worse than anything we saw in the microfinance industry in terms of over-indebtedness and interest rates and and and now frankly NPLs for for those institutions so I think that there is a huge possibility particularly for women if you know you've seen in the some of the pay-as-you-go solar businesses now really looking much more like financial service companies and we've been advising 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 page 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 the solar lamps as as collateral interestingly one of them came to us recently and said the men all want to borrow four television sets the women all want agricultural inputs and education loans so you know some things never changed but I think there's just a huge opportunity there for for those but I'd say making sure that people protected that the digital literacy is there as well as the financial literacy and the consumer protection it is in place would be I'd say job one okay I'm seeing the rapid up sign here from Christie yeah thank you all very much thank you [Applause]
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