CARD shares exceptional women-focused services in a global conference

Featuring global and regional experts, Ms. Dolores M. Torres, President and CEO of CARD Bank, Inc. recently took part as one of the panelists in the global conference initiated by Women’s World Banking (WWB) and hosted by Microfund for Women/Jordan (MfW) under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania in Amman, Jordan.

The global conference aims to promote financial inclusion for low-income women with sessions focused on how financial institutions can expand their market by developing suite of products to meet the specific needs of women clients; and innovative approaches to reach three segments of the underserved population: youth, salaried workers and rural women.

Ms. Torres, voicing out the Philippine’s (CARD) exceptional challenges, approaches, and perspective on financial inclusion in a session titled “What do women-focused products and services look like?” where more than 250 microfinance practitioners, commercial bankers, investors, donors and regulators from over 40 countries attendees. Her Majesty Queen Rania took particular interest in the said session. Ms. Flordeliza L. Sarmiento, President and CEO of Rizal Rural Bank, Inc., which is the newest addition to the CARD MRI, also participated in the conference.

According to World Bank, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the lowest percentage of women participating in the formal finance sector in the world. The venue suits as the participants are also exploring the landscape of financial needs and services of the region.

During the event, WWB conferred to Jordan’s Microfund for Women the 2013 Excellence in Leadership Award. CARD Bank too is one of the finalists for such award. The award annually recognizes a microfinance institution committed to developing women’s leadership and gender diversity in order to prove that investing in women makes business sense, WWB said.

CARD is the first rural bank in the Philippines granted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to have evolved from microfinance NGO, with the purpose of turning poor women, who were once considered non-bankable, financially inclusive. As October 2013, CARD reached almost 2.2 Million socially-and-economically challenged women across the country. In July, this year, BSP awarded CARD as Hall of Famer for Financial Inclusion Champion after winning such since 2011.