Key Evidence

Across the financial sector, GDD is chronically undervalued, inconsistently collected, and poorly standardized. This leaves FSPs unable to build a credible business case for serving women or design products informed by women’s real financial behaviors and needs. 

• The low utilization of GDD can make it difficult for FSPs to assess the risk of lending to women-owned SMEs, limiting their access to credit and financial services. This low utilization of data also makes investors hesitant to invest in women-owned businesses or digital financial inclusion services for women. Even where there is a desire to cater to women consumers, providers may not be able to identify and target women segments in need of DFS without GDD, limiting the effectiveness of their outreach efforts. (World Bank, 2025)
• A 2025 survey of financial services providers found that a third of institutions either do not collect GDD or are unaware of whether they collect it. Only 57% of institutions apply a gender lens when using this data, and just 43% share it with regulatory bodies. (Women’s World Banking, 2025)
• The absence of standardized reporting templates and clear baseline indicators hampers consistent collection and analysis of GDD. Without common frameworks, financial institutions and regulators struggle to track progress or compare results across institutions and markets. A coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach — bringing together FSPs, regulators, industry associations, and data analytics firms to harmonize definitions and reporting frameworks — is essential to closing this gap and enabling sector-wide accountability. (Global Banking Alliance for Women, 2019)

Country-level examples illustrate that regulatory frameworks for data collection do not automatically produce usable gender data. Without gender-specific mandates and standardized implementation, women remain largely invisible in national financial data systems.

• In Indonesia, although regulations exist for the collection of GDD, their implementation remains non-standardized. Presidential Regulation No. 39, 'One Data Indonesia,' for example, aims to establish a nationally accurate, integrated, and shared data system but does not include a clear directive for the systematic collection of GDD, making it difficult to design gender-responsive financial products. Fintech lending reporting also presents GDD in bulk and is not yet utilized to understand the different needs and behaviors of men and women. (Women’s World Banking, 2024)
• The National Bank of Rwanda has implemented gender-focused initiatives, including the Guidelines on Deepening Women's Financial Inclusion and mandating the use of GDD by all banks and micro-financial institutions to monitor and improve access to finance for women-led businesses. (OMFIF, 2025)