The gender-agnostic approach needs to change

Dr Jasmine Gupta, National Digital Bank Head at Equitas Small Finance Bank, and National President - Financial Inclusion Council at Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI), shares insights on how financial services can be made women friendly:

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Ravi Lalwani: Please share some of your thoughts on innovation in products for women?

Jasmine Gupta: Financial products and services have been traditionally designed keeping men in mind. Women are emerging as an important consumer segment, which no industry today can afford to ignore. Women form 48.5% of the country’s population; however, women hold only 32% of total bank accounts. Research suggests that women are important joint decision-makers for the purchase of important products such as gold, home, holiday, car, electronic goods and financial products. Within financial products, women prefer ‘safer’ financial products like gold, bank deposits and life insurance.

Thus, there is immense scope for banks and financial services institutions to tap into this promising segment through innovative products such as savings account bundled with locker facility, preferential rates of interests for home loan or gold loan, free insurance cover, free health check-up and consultation by gynaecologists and mental health experts, free family group accounts, doorstep banking features, etc. Insurance companies have also explored women-specific health insurance policies with in-built pregnancy cover, congenital disability cover, breast and ovarian cancer cover, etc.