Banks have broadened what they offer small and medium enterprises well beyond credit. Every bank in the survey behind this report offered education, information, and networking or market linkage services, and 44% offered or planned to offer business management technology. Yet women-led businesses that qualify for a loan still run into limits financing alone does not lift: knowledge gaps, thin networks, and little access to business support.
The video above sets out what the report found. Banks now treat non-financial services (NFS) as part of the offer, not an extra. The report looks at training, coaching, advisory services, market linkages and peer networks, and what each one does for how a woman-led business performs and how long it stays with its bank.
Most banks do not deliver these services alone. 94% outsourced some or all of their NFS, working through universities (58%), sector-specific industry associations (48%), professional women’s associations (42%), accelerators (27%) and fintechs (15%). The report draws out four practices that separate programmes that work from those that stall. Tailor the proposition to what each sub-segment actually needs instead of running one model across all SMEs. Integrate financial and non-financial services so clients meet one offer instead of two. Build institutional alignment, with a senior champion behind the programme and front-line teams trained to serve women customers. And design measurement in from the start, using a benefit-cost framework that tracks both what the service achieves and what it returns to the bank.
Banks reported gains in client acquisition and retention, higher net promoter scores, and NFS clients holding more products than clients without them. For a bank, that is the commercial case: lower risk, deeper loyalty, a wider lending base. For women entrepreneurs, it is the difference between qualifying for finance and being able to use it to grow.
ConsumerCentriX contributed to the research and insights behind this publication.
