Two-thirds of women feel insufficiently supported or understood by their bank or financial adviser. According to research among 950 men and 1,500 women, this means that women are less likely to seek help with financial problems, have less financial knowledge and invest less often. Female entrepreneurs find it more difficult to attract financing.
According to the bank, this is a missed opportunity for the Dutch economy: women’s investments could yield 169 billion euros annually. The financial position of women would also suffer. For example, only 56 percent of highly educated women between the ages of 18 and 35 feel responsible for their finances. A frequently heard objection: they find banking too complicated. And while a third of marriages fail, previous research has shown that only half of women are financially independent.
Banking has traditionally been a male affair. Until 1956, married women were not allowed to open an account or take out a mortgage without their husband’s permission. As a result, according to inclusive banking director Chantal Korteweg of ABN Amro, there is still too little attention for the needs of women, while according to her they are indeed different. ‘Of course you have to be reluctant to stereotype, but what is really striking is that women have less affinity with risks.’ For example, 77 percent of the property of the young women surveyed is in savings accounts and 23 percent is in shares, compared to 59 and 42 percent for men, respectively.
A shame perhaps, now that the interest on savings is so low, but according to professor of economics Esther-Mirjam Sent of Radboud University, this risk aversion does not have to be negative. ‘It is known that investment clubs with women do better than those with men, because they switch portfolios less often,’ says the professor. ‘And we saw during the financial crisis what the consequences can be if you take too many risks. As Christine Lagarde said when she was IMF director, if it hadn’t been Lehman Brothers but Lehman Sisters, the world would probably be different now.’
The professor therefore doubts whether women should be encouraged to become more involved in matters such as investing. “You may also wonder whether fewer men should do this.” She does think that the ‘financial literacy’ of women and men should be improved. Because the latter, who she believes are underrepresented in the research, also do not know how to handle money. ‘But I see a role for education rather than for ABN Amro, which has an interest.’
Korteweg has certainly thought about how her bank can better serve women. ‘We need to include them in the explanation of products in a different way and think carefully about which words and images we use in our communication’, she says. In the following ad, “masculine” words like “transactional” may just be substituted for “feminine” words like “connection” and “relationship.”
Xi Chen (52) is an entrepreneur with his own wholesale of plants
‘I never thought that I would become an entrepreneur, but when I was asked twenty years ago by an acquaintance from China to focus on the Dutch market for his company, I dared to try it. As an immigrant in the Netherlands I think I had the feeling that I didn’t have much to lose. I had no family, no support, I had to do it myself. If it didn’t work, I would at least have gained an experience.
‘I didn’t expect much from the bank because of that. I did not apply for financing for my business, I only had my office building financed, getting a mortgage was still very easy at the time. I started as a one-man business, now I have five employees and a turnover of 9 million euros.
‘Both in my business and finances I am for the long term and risk diversification, but I do not leave everything in the savings account. I started investing cautiously, first 2,000 euros from the piggy bank, now I take more risk, also because I saw share prices fluctuate over the past two years. I think I’m still a little more careful than men. For example, I’ve never done Bitcoins, I kind of regret that now.’
Carlijn Walma van der Molen (27) is an analyst
‘I have no other contact with the bank other than having an account there that was probably opened by my parents at some point. I never really thought about what to do with money, other than saving neatly. That is of course a shame, because it does not yield anything and eventually I also want to buy a house and build up capital.
‘My boyfriend and his friends are in the stock market, they have whole theories about it and they continuously watch videos about smart investing. My mother taught me that I had to ensure that I was financially independent, but I was never told: Carlijn, go into stocks. I always thought investing was for wealthy men.
‘I think the bank has missed the point there. Men may take risks more easily and have more financial knowledge, but of course women can do that too. Then we just need to know what to do. The bank should provide accessible and reliable information with which I can identify myself.’
