Costa Rica Launches Women’s Financial Inclusion Project with CAF Support

The project titled “Implementation of actions in the guidelines to close financial gaps between women and men in Costa Rica and its pilot program” was presented at an event held at the Presidential House this Wednesday. 

The presentation was given by the First Vice President of the Republic, Epsy Campbell; the executive president of the National Institute of Women (INAMU) and Minister for the Status of Women, Marcela Guerrero; and the CAF Gender, Inclusion and Diversity manager, Ana María Baiardi.  

The project is part of the technical cooperation that CAF is providing to Costa Rica, and aims to help close gender gaps in the financial sector, by promoting products that address the specific needs of women. 

The National Bank, BAC Credomatic and Coopeservidores were the banks selected to implement the pilot plan, based on a set of criteria to measure their commitment to equality between women and men in the national financial system. 

“Thanks to this agreement and the alliances we have established, we are convinced that in a few months financial products will be conceived and created here that take into account the particularities and differences between women and men, as well as the various gaps such as time usage. This should have an effect on barriers for women, by guaranteeing their economic autonomy,” said Costa Rican Vice President Epsy Campbell. 

Meanwhile, the Minister for the Status of Women and executive president of INAMU, Marcela Guerrero, said that “INAMU has been developing guidelines for closing the financial gap between women and men that can be implemented by any financial institution. This would involve including a full range of women’s needs and raising awareness among banking staff so that they can provide products and services that prevent women’s financial exclusion.” 

“As part of CAF’s Gender Equality Strategy, the Bank reiterates its commitment to supporting member countries such as Costa Rica in moving towards a more inclusive financial system. To this end, it is essential to dismantle the structural and gender barriers that can curb equality with regard to financial and non-financial products and services for some population segments, and in particular for women,” said CAF representative, Ana María Baiardi. 

The country’s work and efforts on this issue are based on a political mandate at the highest level on the need to close the financial gap between women and men, in an effort to forge alliances with the country’s four Financial Superintendencies and the Development Banking System. These institutions govern and dictate financial policies, where each contributes its experience and knowledge as an added value to the process. 

Evidence shows that closing gender gaps in access to and use of financial services is a means of contributing to gender equality across the board. But closing this gap requires specific actions that intentionally address this goal. 

Impacts 

Since 2019, INAMU has been working on a financial inclusion agenda in favor of women. This led to the preparation of the first document titled “Report on gaps between men and women in access to and use of the financial system in Costa Rica.” In 2020 this document gave rise to the “Guidelines for closing the financial gap between women and men in Costa Rica,” which lays out the measures to be taken for financial institutions to implement financial inclusion policies that guarantee women’s rights to access and use of economic resources and financial services based on their particular needs. 

In 2021, the second report on gaps between women and men in access to and use of the financial system in Costa Rica was launched, revealing how the crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic impacted women in particular. Statistics show the following:  

As of September 2020, the country recorded 1,176,161 people with active credits, where 522,195 were women (44.4%) and 653,966 were men (55.6%). When comparing the data with the figures from December 2018 (report I), a very slight decrease in the gap is observed as women went from 43.8% to 44.4% and men from 56.2% to 55.6%. That is, the number of women with active loans increased by almost 1 percentage point and the number of men decreased by 1.4%. In 2018, the gap between women and men in terms of active credits was 22%, and as of September 2020 the gap was 20.15%. 

With regard to savings, the gap between the number of accounts held by women and those held by men was 3%. This percentage dropped between December 2018 and September 2020, when it stood at 5%. Similarly, the gap between women’s and men’s average savings decreased between 2018 and 2020, from 11% to 9%. 

55% of credits for women changed in their conditions during 2020, and 52% of men’s portfolio balances also underwent such changes. For corporations, the percentage of modified balances accounted for 50%. 

Of the 12,007,414 million colons whose credit conditions were modified, 37% of this total was for men’s balances, 27% for women and 36% for corporations. When analyzing modifications according to the number of operations, we find that of the total (1,512,021), 52% was for men, 46% for women and 3% for corporations.