Rethinking financial health through a gender lens: Evidence from FinnSalud Mexico

The FinnSalud program was launched to measure and improve financial health among Mexico’s low- and middle-income populations in partnership with financial services providers, particularly credit unions. While the original design did not explicitly incorporate a gender lens, the lived experiences of clients and emerging data quickly revealed the critical importance of understanding the gendered dynamics underlying financial behaviors and outcomes. 

As we progressed, it became clear that women and men experience financial services differently, not necessarily in product ownership or the number of transactions, which often appear similar, but in how they access credit, manage savings, and experience financial resilience. These nuances required a more deliberate and structured approach to gender.

This blog shares the tools and frameworks FinnSalud used to integrate a gender lens, presents key findings about gender disparities in financial health, and outlines practical steps for financial institutions seeking to improve women’s outcomes.

From gender-neutral to gender-transformative: Tools and frameworks we used

The project team developed and deployed several tools and frameworks to uncover these dynamics. 

1. Baseline gender survey: Administered to participating financial institutions, assessing the degree to which gender was embedded in organizational culture, data collection practices, and product design. The survey examined three key areas: (1) organizational culture and women’s leadership, including internal gender policies, training, and representation; (2) understanding of client demand, such as sex-disaggregated data and social norms; and (3) product and service adaptation, including design, marketing, and efforts to identify and reduce gender bias in financial processes.
2. Gender analysis framework: Based on the newly published national guidelines to expand the financial inclusion of women, which helped classify institutional practices on a continuum from gender-neutral to gender-intentional. Intentionality in this context refers to the deliberate effort by institutions to identify and address gender biases, social norms, and structural barriers, ensuring that all clients, regardless of gender, benefit equally from financial services.
3. Gender-dissaggregated assessment. We developed a methodological tool in Excel to identify the transactional and demographic questions that needed to be asked and the data sources to analyze gender differences adequately.

In addition to these institutional assessments, our team conducted detailed customer journey mapping and profitability analysis, disaggregated by gender. This allowed us to trace how women’s financial trajectories evolve differently from those of men, from entry into the cooperative to product usage and financial outcomes. 

What we found: Three patterns in women’s financial health

Women participate more but access less

Across financial cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs), women were found to be highly engaged with financial services, particularly in savings and group lending products. However, despite their active participation, it does not always translate into equitable access to credit or more sophisticated financial tools.

• Women had higher participation rates in savings products, especially long-term and goal-oriented savings.
• They were more likely than men to maintain consistent balances in savings accounts, but had lower average balances.
• Women tended to use group lending models more frequently, reflecting both cultural norms and institutional requirements that make it harder for them to access individual loans.

Gendered differences in credit allocation

Women received lower loan amounts than men, even after controlling for factors such as income, business type, and repayment history.

• In some financial institutions, women received 18% fewer unsecured consumer loans than men.
• In housing finance, the gap was even wider—women received mortgage loans that were on average 47.6% smaller than those given to men.
• Women performed slightly better in loan repayment, with lower delinquency rates and more consistent payments. Yet, they were still considered “riskier” borrowers due to a lack of collateral or formal financial histories.

Gendered pathways to product adoption and financial deepening

Customer journey mapping revealed distinct pathways between women and men in how they initiate and develop their relationships with financial institutions, such as credit unions, in the state of Oaxaca.  

Women are more likely to begin their financial journeys with basic savings products, such as children’s accounts or standard savings accounts.

• They also demonstrate high participation in group lending schemes as their primary or recurring credit option.
• In contrast, men show a higher tendency to migrate toward high-value products over time, such as business loans or fixed-term investments.
• On average, women retain savings and debit products longer, suggesting long-term engagement but limited progression to more complex or profitable financial tools.

These patterns reflect not only product preferences but also underlying structural barriers, perceptions of risk, and institutional practices that influence how women move—or don’t move—through the financial system.

Nudging savings among women in group loans

In one of our partner credit unions, women participating in group lending schemes, which encouraged savings with each loan payment, exhibited lower and inconsistent savings behavior, often due to a lack of “purpose” for the savings and structured prompts by loan advisors. To address this, BFA Global introduced scripted savings offers for advisors to present to customers during loan renewals, supported by a simple calculator tool that suggested feasible contribution amounts.

• This intervention led to a significant uptake, with 84% of women agreeing to save a fixed amount over the loan period.
• The approach’s success demonstrates that behavioral nudges, when well-timed and well-delivered, can foster active saving habits, even among clients with limited financial buffers. In one pilot with a cooperative, a savings product designed specifically for women, offered through targeted prompts during loan renewals, achieved over 90% uptake. Among the 3,000 women participants, average savings balances doubled, transforming the product from loss-making to profitable. This illustrates how combining behavioral insights with gender-intentional design can yield both social and financial returns. Such results highlight the value of embedding these nudges into core operational flows, like standard loan renewals or digital interfaces, to ensure sustained and scalable impact beyond the pilot stage.
• The next challenge is to convert short-term savings into longer-term financial planning—for example, by encouraging term deposits and goal-oriented savings plans.

This finding reinforces the importance of meeting clients where they are—leveraging existing touchpoints, such as loan renewals, to introduce financial behaviors that foster resilience over time.

Women report lower financial resilience

Despite their financial discipline, women perceive themselves as less financially resilient than men, particularly when facing unexpected expenses. Self-reported survey data revealed notable gender differences in respondents’ assessments of their ability to cover a financial emergency.

When asked how easy it would be to cover an unexpected expense of 12,000 pesos (about 600 USD, a standardized benchmark used in financial health assessments) within the next week, 37% said it would be somewhat or very difficult.​

In contrast, 32% of men said it would be somewhat or very difficult. These gaps in perceived resilience align with prior findings related to lower average loan amounts and savings balances among women, suggesting that women may face greater vulnerability in moments of financial stress, despite having strong repayment histories. These findings highlight the importance of integrating behavioral data and self-perceptions when measuring financial health, as objective indicators alone may not fully capture women’s financial vulnerability or confidence.

What community-based financial institutions can do

To support gender-inclusive financial health, cooperatives and MFIs can take the following steps:

• Disaggregate data by sex and conduct sex differentiated customer research. This is necessary but not sufficient, it also needs to be analyzed and integrated into MIS and decision-making systems to drive product development or portfolio reviews. 
• Based on the findings, design gender-smart products: Develop flexible credit models that support women’s transition from group to individual lending, and create long-term savings and investment tools with incentives aligned to women’s financial goals. Financial products should also be tailored to women’s financial life stages, addressing needs related to caregiving gaps, return-to-work transitions, and informal retirement planning. A lifecycle-based approach to product design can deepen inclusion and long-term financial resilience.
• Leverage digital habits: offer accessible, low-barrier investment and insurance products through digital channels, tailored to women’s use patterns.
• Institutionalize gender inclusion:
  • Conduct gender audits to identify internal biases.
  • Train staff in gender-sensitive service delivery.
  • Set and monitor gender-focused key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and ensure accountability.

These changes expand access for women, enhance customer retention, improve portfolio performance, and strengthen long-term institutional sustainability.

What’s next? Questions that still need answers

While FinnSalud has revealed critical insights into gendered patterns of financial health, it has also surfaced new questions that demand deeper exploration, particularly for financial institutions seeking to move from gender awareness to full inclusion and transformation.

Key questions include:

• What is the long-term value of women as financial clients?
  In the short term, women often receive smaller loans, which can appear less profitable. However, their higher repayment rates, long-term loyalty, customer recommendations, and consistent savings behaviors suggest greater lifetime value. We need robust metrics to assess this potential across various products and time frames.
• How do women’s financial needs evolve over their life course?
  Women’s financial journeys differ significantly from those of men, from entering the workforce to caregiving and retirement. Understanding how life transitions affect financial behaviors can guide the design of more responsive, adaptable products.

Despite increased awareness, many financial institutions still lack the internal capacity, incentive structures, or accountability mechanisms to act on gender-disaggregated insights. A key barrier is the absence of safe, responsive grievance systems, especially for women who may hesitate to report issues due to fear of blame, low confidence, or discomfort engaging with male staff. A gender-intentional approach requires designing recourse mechanisms that reflect women’s lived realities. This can include training female agents to manage complaints, offering private and respectful support channels, deploying local-language IVR systems, and ensuring transparent follow-up processes. Further research is needed to identify the most effective institutional levers, such as leadership buy-in, KPIs, or internal champions, that foster sustained gender-smart change.

• How can we close the gap between digital engagement and access to higher-value products?
  Women’s digital adoption is growing, but they remain underserved in investment, insurance, and large-scale credit areas. Understanding the behavioral, social, and institutional barriers is essential for product innovation.

These questions point to a critical next step: moving beyond diagnosis into the continuous testing and iteration of gender-smart solutions. The journey toward financial equality requires not only data but sustained innovation.

Looking ahead: A call to action

FinnSalud’s approach is a blueprint for other financial institutions seeking to align their strategies with a gender-inclusive vision. The lessons learned in Mexico underscore the importance of sustained investment in gender-sensitive financial health initiatives, ensuring that financial inclusion efforts yield tangible improvements in women’s economic well-being.

We call on credit unions, microfinance institutions (MFIs), fintechs, regulators, and donors to:

• Invest in gender-disaggregated data systems to inform product design and risk assessment, but to track lifetime customer value, retention, repayment patterns, and satisfaction, differentiated by gender, to make the business case for gender-intentional strategies
• Align offerings with women’s financial behavior and life stages, not just transaction patterns, including caregiving responsibilities, return-to-work transitions, and informal retirement needs. This means designing intuitive mobile interfaces, offering goal-based savings prompts, and ensuring responsive customer support.
• Institutionalize gender inclusion through staff training, gender audits, and accountability structures that turn inclusion from aspiration into measurable practice.
• Treat gender integration as a business strategy, not just a compliance or corporate social responsibility (CSR) goal.
• Leverage digital public infrastructure (DPI), such as tiered KYC, national ID systems, and open finance frameworks, to reduce onboarding barriers and expand access for excluded women.

In addition to these actions, the ecosystem must adopt an innovation-lab mindset that embraces experimentation, human-centered design, and rapid learning. Financial institutions should evolve from offering product-based financial services to providing needs-based financial solutions responsive to customers’ unique challenges and aspirations throughout their lives.

By doing so, we can ensure that financial inclusion efforts translate into tangible gains in resilience, autonomy, and opportunity, especially for women. The work is far from over, but we now have the tools, evidence, and momentum to move forward.

*Special recognition to the FinnSalud program team: Gabriela Zapata, Jorge Hernández, Aline Schlebach, Juan Jaramillo, Julián Rodríguez, Andrés García, Benjamin Mazzotta, Ashirul Amin, Nelly Ramírez, and Marco Del Río.

*Shruti Sharma, an invited expert in financial inclusion, digital payments, and gender, provided peer review for this paper. Her contributions helped sharpen the technical analysis and strengthen the paper’s policy relevance.

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