The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the

views or policies of the Asian

Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of
the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do
not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

Enabling Environment to Improve

Womens Access to Finance
Dr Vijaya Nagarajan, Senior Gender Expert
Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative
Regional Seminar: Womens Employment, Entrepreneurship and
Empowerment: Moving Forward on Imperfect Pathways
Bangkok, 20-22 May 2015

Outline
Context and the Pacific landscape
PSDI initiatives and creating an enabling
environment
Gender in PSDI Initiatives

The Pacific Landscape

Enabling environment:
Amending discriminatory laws
Business registrations reform
One person company introduced
Community company introduced
Online business and company registries
Future: also need to make access easy, link
these laws to BDS, markets, and finance.

Financial inclusion: mobile

banking empowering women
Banking the unbanked
Reaching out to rural areas through technology
Assisting with depositing earnings at markets
and avoiding harassment
Use by banking and non financial institutions
Regulatory issues considered by PSDI

Women in SME cant access

finance some findings
Interestrateistoo
high
Lackofsecurities
Loanamount
inadequate

Fiji PNG Solomons Samoa Tonga Vanuatu

26% 41% 33% 17% 28% 56%
13% 19% 28%
10% 7% 11%

33% 28% 6%
11% 0 0

Introducing new laws to

improve access to credit
Secured Transactions Framework
Can be access by women (not land)
Provides an easier way to use movable assets as
collateral for loans
Legislation
On-line registry
Enforcement outside courts

Provide certainty of claim and process in the case of

default for all types of loans

In developing countries most collateral is in

real assets but movable assets dominate
firm balance sheets
Capital Stock of Firms
22%
44%

Security Collateral Taken

by Lenders
34%

27%

Vehicles / Machinery / Equipment

Accounts Receivable
Land / Real Estate
73%

Source : World Bank Enterprise Surveys

Land / Real Estate

Movable Property

 but not so in developed economies

Assets that can be secured: Plant, machinery, inventory

finance, accounts receivable, supply
chain finance
9

Impact on womenmore needed

Law is not the whole answer
Response by institutions mixed
Social norms are embedded in institutions
Smaller financial institutions more innovative
Still overall reluctance to lend to women/SMEs
Where to
Pilots to encourage change
Work with womens institutions
Work with purchasers of products