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18 . 09 . 2017
WOMEN: SIMPLY A GOOD INVESTMENT

“As the first financial institution in MENA to advocate for gender equality, we had to face the challenge of supporting cultural change on many levels both inside and outside the bank. Today I’m proud to say that we have come a long way while gaining immense international recognition for our work,” says Nadim Kassar, Deputy Chairman and General Manager of BLC Bank.

 

Established in 1950, BLC Bank is one of Lebanon’s oldest banks. It operates in a highly competitive environment, with more than 60 banks servicing a population of only 4 million. The daring decision to focus on SMEs and women thus enabled the Bank to differentiate itself and to overcome critical market challenges establishing itself as a major player in Lebanon’s financial sector.

 

“It was a bold decision to make back then, but we knew it was the right one, so we set out to find solutions to provide women with opportunities that they did not have,” explains Kassar, highlighting the fact that in Lebanon, some laws do not give women the same rights and opportunities as men. Lebanese women are still underrepresented in the workforce, and several international studies show that an adequate integration of women in the labour force of an economy, providing more support for women’s entrepreneurship, and closing the gender gap in financial inclusion would lead to national economic growth, competitiveness and long-term strength.

 

This led BLC Bank to launch in 2012 a program solely dedicated to women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment. The “We Initiative” is open to all women in Lebanon and aims at raising awareness and providing women with equal opportunities to enhance their professional and personal lives. We Initiative’s customer value proposition goes beyond mere financial solutions and provides non-financial services including trainings, access to markets, exposure, mentorship and expert advice.

 

“One of the key aspects of our approach,” explains Kassar, “was to invest in disaggregating data in order to better understand the potential value of specifically targeting women. We quickly realized that the woman-owned SME segment clearly represented a gap, and a potential growth market opportunity that would differentiate us from others. This is in part what has enabled the program to achieve substantial business returns.”

 

The results from the We Initiative have been impressive. The female customer base has showed a stronger return on assets, as well as better loan repayment rates than men. As such, BLC Bank has dispelled the common belief that women customers are less profitable or less credit-worthy than men.

 

More than a solid business case in favour of the potential of unbanked market segments, the We Initiative has turned BLC Bank into a reference bank both locally and internationally by influencing the creation of similar programs in more than 40 countries around the world.

 

"I’M PROUD THAT OUR ENDEAVOUR TO PROMOTE WOMEN IN LEBANON HAS HAD TREMENDOUS IMPACT ON OUR SOCIETY AND HAS LIBERATED WOMEN FROM THEIR OLD FEARS."

 

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