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Brazil, the Latin American superpower and force to be reckoned with. The Portuguese-speaking titan in the midst of a sea of Spanish speakers, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Banks work hard to improve UX and innovate.

The majority of innovation initiatives focus on digital wallets, hiring UX consultancy services, adopting omni-channel technology, or improving mobile banking. On the other hand, perception vastly differs when you ask retail customers how they would rate banks in terms of innovation.

On this digital journey, banks want to streamline digital operations into mobile banking and save customers from having to visit branches. Likewise, customers don’t want to go to branches in person either, but rather, expect to manage their needs and requirements online themselves. 

FinTech has been lauded as a game-changer in nearly every sense of the word, but can it also revolutionize the way banks serve women? 

Right now, women clients are finding that FIs simply aren't meeting their specific needs. In fact, a BCG survey of more than 12,000 women from 21 countries found that of all the industries that affect their daily lives, women feel most dissatisfied with the financial services industry, both on a product and service level.

The surveyed women also reported a strong willngness to switch to a provider that would understand them better. This translates to real costs for banks failing to deliver an empathic understanding of women's unique situations and needs in running their homes and businesses (oftentimes happening simultaneously).

After all, we're talking about 50% of Earth's population here, and that's no small change - particularly when it comes to women who run their own business. Women entrepreneurs represent a very profitable and financially engaged segment with an even more specific set of needs that have traditionally been ignored. According to a 2014 Goldman Sachs report, woman-owned SMEs represent an untapped potential market for banks of approximately $235 billion! 

So why, in so many aspects of banking, haven't women's needs been prioritized? And how can FinTech help the financial services industry cater more effectively to women entrepreneurs?