Financial services has made gradual progress in improving gender diversity, yet women remain underrepresented in senior leadership. That imbalance extends beyond workforce representation. In our report, Needed: More Women With Power, we found it also affects how well the industry serves one of its largest customer segments.
Women play an increasingly influential role in financial decision-making, but many financial products and services continue to reflect assumptions that do not fully address their needs. Our analysis estimates that closing these gaps could represent at least a $700 billion global revenue opportunity across banking, wealth management, insurance, and corporate banking. Improving gender balance is not only about building more inclusive organizations. It is also about creating products, services, and customer experiences that better reflect the people financial institutions serve.
Why women remain underserved in financial services
Over the past decade, women's representation in financial services leadership has improved, but progress has been incremental. Across Europe, women now hold about 20% of executive committee positions and 29% of board seats, although representation varies significantly by country.
At the same time, women have become increasingly influential financial decision-makers. Yet our research found that financial institutions often do not consistently meet women's needs across multiple business lines.
Longstanding challenges, including limited funding for female-led small and medium-sized businesses and traditional approaches to wealth management that often reflect a more typical male career trajectory. It also identifies opportunities across retail banking, insurance, and corporate banking, where products and services that appear gender-neutral may not fully reflect differences in customer needs or experiences.
How better serving women can unlock $700 billion in revenue
Better serving women presents significant revenue opportunities across the financial services industry. Retail banks could generate an estimated $65 billion through additional mortgage and credit approvals for existing customers if women were approved at the same rate as men. Supporting female-led small and medium-sized businesses could generate another $30 billion in net interest income through business lending.
In wealth and asset management, firms could generate $25 billion in additional fees by helping women invest more of their assets in ways similar to male investors. The largest opportunity lies in insurance. If women purchased life insurance at the same proportion of income as men, insurers could generate an additional $500 billion in new written premiums globally.
Corporate and institutional banking also presents an opportunity. Better managing relationships with women clients could place approximately $80 billion of existing revenue at stake through increased market share. Together, these opportunities form the basis of our estimate that financial services is overlooking at least $700 billion in potential revenue by underserving women.
Why women in leadership strengthen business performance
Improving gender balance inside organizations and improving service for women customers are closely connected.
Leadership teams that better reflect their customer base are more likely to recognize unmet needs, challenge assumptions, and develop products that appeal to a broader range of customers. Greater diversity can also contribute to stronger internal decision-making by bringing different perspectives into strategic discussions.
Rather than viewing gender balance solely as a workforce initiative, our research encourages organizations to consider how leadership diversity influences customer understanding, product development, and commercial performance.
Taking a broader approach to gender balance
The report describes this as taking a more "panoramic" approach to gender balance. Rather than focusing only on representation within the workforce, organizations should also consider how gender balance influences the products they develop, the services they provide, and the customers they serve.
Products designed to better reflect different customer circumstances can benefit everyone. Examples include life insurance products that recognize unpaid domestic work, flexible wealth management advice built around customer goals, and mortgage products that accommodate parental leave.
Looking at customer needs through a broader lens can strengthen product development while helping firms better understand increasingly diverse markets.
Making gender balance part of business strategy
Gender balance should no longer be treated as a standalone diversity initiative. Instead, it should become part of broader business strategy.
Organizations that improve gender diversity in leadership are more likely to strengthen internal decision-making, attract talent, and better understand evolving customer expectations. At the same time, better serving women as customers represents a significant commercial opportunity across multiple financial services sectors.
Ultimately, gender balance should extend beyond workforce representation. It should inform how firms think about leadership, customer experience, product design, and long-term growth. Taking a broader approach can help make gender balance central to a firm's purpose, customer service, business strategy, and brand.
