Locked Out of Finance | The Inequality Facing Women Worldwide

Women’s access to banking has improved, but opening an account is not the same as achieving financial freedom. Identification requirements can stop a woman at the first step. Unequal property and inheritance rights can leave her without collateral for a loan. A relative may control her documents, phone, PIN or income, while high fees and the digital divide make an existing account difficult to use.

The result is more than inconvenience. Financial exclusion can prevent women from receiving wages safely, saving for emergencies, growing businesses, paying for healthcare or leaving abuse. Meaningful financial inclusion for women therefore requires three things: the ability to access, use and independently control suitable financial services. Any reform that delivers only one of them leaves part of the problem intact.

Key takeaways

In 2024, 73% of women in low- and middle-income economies had a financial or mobile-money account, but the gender gap was still five percentage points and about 700 million women worldwide remained unbanked.
Account ownership can hide inactivity, dependence on another person and a lack of privacy or decision-making power.
Identification, discriminatory laws, unequal property ownership, family control and digital exclusion often reinforce one another.
Mobile money, digital ID and alternative credit assessments can help, but poor design can create new privacy, fraud or exclusion risks.
Progress should be measured through affordable access, active use, fair credit and independent control—not the number of accounts opened alone.

What women’s access to banking really means

Financial inclusion is the ability to access and use appropriate, affordable financial services, including payments, savings, credit and insurance. For women, a useful definition must also include agency: can the account holder decide what happens to her money without coercion or unauthorised surveillance?

Level	The essential question	What failure can look like
Access	Can she open an account or apply for credit?	No accepted ID, proof of address, branch, agent or legally recognised signature
Use	Can she afford and confidently use valuable services?	High fees, an inactive account, confusing products or no convenient way to deposit and pay
Control	Can she make private, voluntary decisions about the money?	Someone else holds the phone, knows the PIN, withdraws the balance or dictates spending

The latest World Bank Global Findex, published in 2025 from surveys conducted in 2024, shows real progress. In low- and middle-income economies, 73% of women had an account, up from 66% in 2021, and the ownership gap between women and men had narrowed to five percentage points. Even so, about 700 million women worldwide remained without an account.

Use is improving, but it is not equal. Across those economies, 36% of women saved formally in 2024 and 58% made or received a digital payment. Women account holders were still less likely than men to save formally, borrow formally or make digital payments. Global surveys also cannot fully reveal who controls the credentials or decisions. “Banked” and “financially independent” are not synonyms.

Why women still face barriers to financial inclusion

1. Identification barriers can stop banking before it begins

Financial institutions generally have to confirm a customer’s identity. These customer due diligence checks—often called “know your customer” or KYC—help prevent financial crime. Exclusion occurs when acceptable proof assumes everyone has official ID, a fixed address and a utility bill in their own name.

Many people do not. The World Bank’s ID4D Global Dataset estimates that 800 million people lacked official identification in 2024. At the global level, the adult ID ownership gap between women and men was no longer statistically significant. Yet in low-income countries, women were still 5.1 percentage points less likely than men to have ID.

Registration offices may be distant or inaccessible, and fees or repeat visits cost time and money. Unregistered births and marriage-related name changes can create missing or mismatched records. Displaced women may hold documents a bank does not recognise, while proof of address is difficult when bills are recorded under a husband, father or landlord.

The Financial Action Task Force’s updated guidance supports proportionate, risk-based checks. National rules can permit limited-purpose accounts, reliable digital verification or simpler requirements for lower-risk services. Non-digital and non-biometric alternatives remain essential.

2. Discriminatory laws reach far beyond the bank counter

An economy does not need a rule explicitly banning women from banking to produce banking inequality. Restrictions involving legal capacity, work, mobility, marriage, household authority, inheritance and property can all narrow women’s access to financial services.

Restrictions on signing contracts, working, mobility or administering marital property can obstruct a lender’s conditions. Unequal inheritance can remove both assets and proof of address, while document restrictions can block KYC checks.

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 report found that 91 of 190 economies lacked a law prohibiting gender discrimination in access to credit. Nineteen still legally required wives to obey their husbands, while 29 did not permit women to be recognised as heads of household.

Law on paper is only part of the picture. Across the areas measured, the average economy scored 67 out of 100 for legal frameworks, but 47 for supportive policies and institutions and 53 for perceived enforcement. Staff may request a husband’s approval without legal basis, or courts may fail to enforce property rights. Reform must reach the institution applying the rule.

3. Lack of collateral turns unequal property rights into a credit barrier

Collateral is an asset a lender can claim if a loan is not repaid. Banks often favour registered land and buildings, disadvantaging women who farm, contribute to family homes or run businesses without holding legal title.

Unequal inheritance, marital-property and land-registration rules can keep assets in male relatives’ names. Informal ownership may be socially recognised but invisible to a bank, leaving a viable woman entrepreneur without acceptable security.

Registration and enforcement matter as much as formal rights. Women, Business and the Law 2026 found that only 34 of the 190 economies assessed had mechanisms or incentives encouraging women to register immovable property. A right that never reaches the title deed cannot easily become collateral.

The goal is responsible credit, not more debt at any cost. Joint titling, equal property rights, movable-collateral registries, guarantees and cash-flow lending can widen women’s access to loans. Alternative data may help, but lenders must test models for gender bias and let applicants challenge errors.

4. Family control can make an account hers in name only

Family control may involve a relative keeping documents, taking wages, monitoring transactions or choosing passwords. Some women use a family account because a separate one is costly; others are pressured to surrender an account opened in their own name.

When coercive, this can constitute economic abuse: preventing work, taking income, creating debt in someone’s name or denying essentials. Such restriction can form part of the controlling behaviour recognised in intimate-partner violence. It occurs across countries, cultures and income groups, not within one type of community.

An account-opening campaign can therefore look successful while household power remains unchanged. A woman may be forced to withdraw a payment immediately, and a shared phone can expose every balance, transfer and security alert.

A 2021 American Economic Review study in rural India compared bank accounts alone with accounts combined with training and direct deposit of public-sector wages. Women receiving the fuller package worked more and gained greater financial autonomy. One setting cannot predict every outcome, but it shows why access without use and control may achieve little.

5. Digital finance can remove distance—and reproduce inequality

Mobile banking and mobile money can bring payments, transfers and savings closer to women who live far from a branch. Lower operating costs may support cheaper accounts, while remote access can save travel time and fit around paid work and unpaid care.

However, digital access depends on devices, connectivity, a registered SIM, digital skills and privacy. The GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2026, reporting 2025 data from low- and middle-income countries, found that women were 7% less likely than men to own a mobile phone and 12% less likely to use mobile internet.

A basic or shared phone may not support an app, private security codes or a protected transaction history. Biometrics can fail, interfaces may exclude local languages or screen readers, and fraud can be devastating without effective redress. Safe digital finance requires accessibility and choice, not an assumption of private smartphone ownership.

Costs, distance and unsuitable products compound every barrier

Even with ID and a phone, fees, minimum balances, transport and unsuitable branch hours may make an account unusable. Unfamiliar terms and poor treatment by staff add risk and weaken trust.

Financial literacy for women is useful when it helps people compare costs, avoid fraud and exercise their rights. It is not a substitute for fair law, affordable products or respectful service. A customer cannot budget her way around a bank that rejects her documents or a household member who confiscates her income.

These barriers rarely operate one at a time

Consider a hypothetical rural widow without a birth certificate, title to the land she farms, a nearby branch or a private phone. Without ID she may not register a SIM; without an account she cannot build a formal history; without title she cannot satisfy a conventional lender.

Experiences differ: disabled women may face inaccessible branches or biometrics; displaced women may hold unrecognised documents; and migrants may encounter language barriers. Older women can be excluded by app-only services, while survivors of abuse may need discreet security features.

One “women’s product” cannot solve this barrier stack. The right intervention depends on what is blocking access, use or control—and whether its removal creates another risk.

What financial exclusion costs women and economies

The immediate cost is reduced choice. Without a safe place for money, paid work may not produce financial independence, emergencies become harder to absorb and leaving abuse may be impossible without funds for transport, accommodation or legal help.

Health shocks, failed harvests and lost income are more damaging without savings, payments or insurance. Education and healthcare may be delayed, while informal credit can bring high costs or unsafe conditions.

For women entrepreneurs, unsuitable credit restricts stock, equipment, hiring and growth. The problem often reflects how lenders define acceptable assets, histories and businesses—not a lack of ambition.

The effects spread beyond individuals. When women cannot invest, work formally or expand firms, economies lose productive activity and jobs. Women, Business and the Law 2026 estimates that closing gender gaps in employment and entrepreneurship could raise global GDP by about 20%. That is not an estimate of banking reform alone; it shows the wider economic opportunity to which equal finance contributes.

How to improve women’s access to banking—and their control

Build inclusive ID and proportionate KYC systems

Governments should make civil registration and foundational ID affordable regardless of marital status, with accessible centres, correction procedures and routes for displaced people. Regulators and providers should use lawful, risk-based KYC instead of maximum documentation for every product.

Success means women can obtain credentials independently, correct errors, protect their data and use a non-digital alternative when needed.

Reform legal rights and enforce them at the counter

Equal capacity, mobility, work, property and inheritance rights underpin access to accounts and credit. Anti-discrimination rules must cover decisions and terms, backed by trained staff, complaints and enforcement.

The Democratic Republic of Congo illustrates connected legal reform. Changes to its family code allowed married women to work, register businesses and open bank accounts without a husband’s permission. Family law and financial inclusion policy cannot be treated as separate systems.

Let more types of assets support responsible credit

Movable-collateral systems allow lenders to consider equipment, vehicles, stock, crops or receivables rather than land alone. An IFC case study of Ghana’s collateral-registry reform reported that the project facilitated $525 million in financing to 194,000 women borrowers and expanded lending secured by movable assets.

A registry cannot create assets for someone who owns none, guarantee affordable interest or remove bias. It works best with property reform, transparent pricing and responsible-lending protections.

Turn payments into a gateway, not an endpoint

Paying wages and benefits into a woman’s own account can encourage ownership and use—if she consents and can reach the funds. In India, women’s account inactivity fell from about one-third in 2021 to 18% in 2024 as digital government payments expanded, according to World Bank analysis.

Compulsory digital payment can harm people without a phone, nearby agent or safe control. Programmes need assisted onboarding, clear fees and alternatives during failures.

Design digital finance for privacy, safety and accessibility

Providers can offer low-data and basic-phone services, cards, agents and relevant languages. Private notifications, safe credential recovery, fraud response, screen-reader compatibility and biometric alternatives should be standard.

Providers should test whether women complete onboarding, use accounts, receive fair loan decisions and resolve complaints—not merely whether an app exists.

Combine financial capability with human support

Useful education covers total costs, PIN safety, scams, credit records and appeals. Women agents, accessible branches and trained staff can reduce dependence on intermediaries.

Employers can deposit wages into individually controlled accounts with consent and onboarding support. Civil society can help with ID, property rights and survivor-centred services. No single actor can remove all five barriers.

A practical test for genuinely inclusive banking

Before calling a product or programme inclusive, ask:

Access: Are ID requirements proportionate, and are alternatives available for people without standard documents or smartphones?
Affordability: Are every fee, minimum balance and cash-out cost clear before enrolment?
Usefulness: Can customers receive income, save, pay and access suitable credit—not just hold an empty account?
Control: Does the customer privately control the device, credentials, withdrawals and decisions?
Safety: Are there discreet notifications, secure recovery and trained responses to fraud or economic abuse?
Fairness: Are approval rates, loan sizes, prices, inactivity and complaints monitored by sex and other relevant characteristics?
Redress: Can a rejected or harmed customer reach a person, correct data and appeal a decision?

For an individual comparing accounts, these questions reveal more than a promotional “no-fee” label. If someone may be monitoring your finances, changing passwords or opening an account on a shared device can sometimes increase danger. Use a device the person cannot access and seek local, specialist domestic-abuse support before making changes when it is safe to do so.

Frequently asked questions

How many women do not have a bank account?

The World Bank estimated that about 700 million women had no financial-institution or mobile-money account in 2024. The figure is therefore broader than bank accounts alone.

Is mobile money the same as a bank account?

Not always. Global Findex counts both, but mobile money comes from a mobile-money provider rather than a bank. Services, deposit protection and consumer rights vary by country and provider.

Can a bank require collateral to open an account?

Collateral normally applies to a loan, not a deposit or payment account. Providers still require customer information. Because rules vary, ask which conditions are legally mandatory and which are bank policy.

Can financial literacy close the gender gap in banking?

Education can improve confidence, credit comparison and fraud awareness. It cannot remove discriminatory law, missing ID, inaccessible technology or coercion; it must accompany affordable services, legal rights and independent control.

Women’s access to banking must lead to financial freedom

Women’s access to banking is not solved when an account appears in a database. The real test is whether a woman can prove her identity, receive and keep income, save safely, obtain fair credit, protect her privacy and make financial decisions without another person’s permission.

Closing the gap therefore requires more than a banking app or a one-off literacy class. It requires equal law, usable identification, wider definitions of collateral, safe product design and protection from economic control. Account ownership opens the door; access, use and control determine whether a woman can walk through it.

Call to action: Use the seven-question inclusion test to assess a bank, payment programme or policy where you live—and share the findings with organisations working for women’s rights and financial freedom.

Sources

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