Key Evidence

Women’s thin credit files are not simply a reflection of lower economic activity—they are a product of financial systems that were not designed to capture the informal, social, and small-scale transactions that characterize women’s financial lives, leaving them invisible to lenders even when they are creditworthy. 

• Borrowing from family and friends remains the most common source of financing in many developing economies, reflecting limited access to formal financial services and weak credit histories. On average, 31% of adults reported borrowing informally in 2024, with regional rates as high as 45% in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.  (Global Findex Report, 2025).
• In many markets, lenders are finding new ways of accelerating offerings to individuals and businesses by making decisions based on alternative data. The most successful institutions will be those that combine alternative data with inclusive credit-scoring models for thin-file customers, including women, to access formal credit. (Kelly and Mirpourian, 2021)
• Altering an FSP’s credit assessment practice often meets with considerable resistance, making it challenging to persuade institutions to change their established procedures to enhance fairness. However, the emergence of fintech companies has underscored the need for alternative data in credit assessment, highlighting the growing relevance of diverse data sources in financial applications. For women who are often “thin-file” customers with limited credit histories, the rise of fintech offers new opportunities for credit assessments. (Mirpourian, 2024)
• A 2025 survey of financial services providers found that only about 30% of institutions reported their customers had the necessary documentation to qualify for loans. (Women’s World Banking, 2025)

Across South and Southeast Asia, limited asset ownership, informal business structures, and exclusion from credit bureaus combine to make women systematically invisible to formal lenders — creating a self-reinforcing cycle where lack of credit history prevents access to the products that would generate it.

• Women with fewer assets in their name may have no options for collateralized security. This lack of collateral causes women-owned businesses to be denied bank credit more often than men. Women are also more likely to be 'thin-file' customers — lacking a formal credit score or credit history — which means standard credit product requirements simply do not work for them. (Ajayan, 2023)
• In India, women-led small businesses form only 10 percent of the gross loan portfolio of most FSPs. This is partly because women do not approach formal finance, and if they do, they do not get access to credit due to a lack of collateral and credit histories. In addition, women-led businesses are essentially micro businesses – too big for micro-finance institutions (with a loan requirement of greater than INR 50,000) and too small for banks (with a loan requirement that is less than INR 10 lakhs)--suggesting that plenty of genuine demand in this “missing middle” goes unmet. (Madhok, 2023)