A bold regulatory push led by Dr. Margarita Hernandez, former head of Ecuador’s cooperative financial market authority (Superintendencia de Economía Popular y Solidaria or SEPS), is transforming the financial inclusion landscape. Its 2021 Regulation for the protection of the rights of members, clients, and financial users through financial inclusion with a gender perspective establishes measures to promote financial inclusion, ensuring equitable access to financial services through access to information, tailored financial products, and education. It also enhances transparency, encourages women’s participation in leadership roles, and designs financial products with a gender perspective to further advance gender-inclusive financial access.
This regulation applies to all community-based financial institutions regulated by SEPS—including cooperatives, mutual savings groups, and credit institutions. Over the past decade, these institutions have played a fundamental role in financial inclusion, with a notable increase in their memberships. In 2023, nearly 49% of these memberships were held by women, highlighting the importance of community-based financial institutions as a key link to the country’s financial system, in which 4.4 million women participate.
Ecuador’s journey highlights that the building blocks of gender-intentional regulation are the right institutional incentives and capacities, combined with a deep understanding of the barriers—including gender norms—that affect women’s access to financial services.
Outlined below are five steps from Dr. Margarita that financial authorities can take to embed a gender-perspective in their organizations and those they regulate.
Step 1: Create a strategic roadmap
Dr. Margarita’s first step was creating a strategic roadmap to embed gender inclusion within SEPS and the critical sector it regulates: “It’s on us to make sure the promise of equity in cooperativism becomes a reality.”
The roadmap, developed in collaboration with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), served as a foundation for the regulation. Its main objectives were to reduce gender gaps, promote financial education with a gender perspective, and boost financial inclusion.
“It’s on us to make sure the promise of equity in cooperativism becomes a reality.”
Step 2: Build out government capacity
To implement this roadmap, Dr. Margarita established the National Directorate of Financial Inclusion with a specialized technical team: “Our technical team is gradually ensuring that our strategy’s principles are integrated into each regulation through phased reviews that are supported by continuous training. This strengthens SEPS’ institutional capabilities to ensure the inclusion of a gender lens lasts beyond my term.”
SEPS has also significantly promoted gender diversity within its own workforce. During Dr. Margarita’s tenure, women represented 60% of the staff and more than 70% of the executive team, surpassing global averages for central banks. Additionally, SEPS has been certified by Ecuador’s Labor Ministry and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) as a “Safe Institution Free of Violence Against Women”, a designation recognizing its commitment to equipping public officials with tools to combat gender-based violence in the workplace.
With a solid strategy and organizational structure, Dr. Margarita and her team partnered with the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and AFI for a thorough diagnostic to uncover the unique challenges Ecuadorian women face in accessing credit. The results revealed that factors such as economic participation, property rights, access to education, along with entrepreneurial skills, significantly influence women’s financial inclusion.
Step 3: Drive inclusion in financial service providers
The regulation mandates that financial service providers (FSPs) regulated by SEPS adopt gender strategies with measurable goals, and that they implement inclusive policies aimed at closing gender gaps across all organizational levels: “Among the identified barriers on the diagnostic, are processes and requirements that could be addressed through regulation. Other obstacles, stemming for example, from gender norms, were also identified and are more challenging to manage. For this reason, it is essential to engage different stakeholders who support regulatory changes through inclusive policies.”
The regulation also requires these FSPs to establish internal financial education programs with a gender perspective, targeting everyone from frontline staff to senior management, to ensure fair and inclusive treatment of all users.
Additionally, with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), SEPS developed the Guide for Designing Products with a Gender Perspective.
Step 4: Bolster efforts on financial education
Under Dr. Margarita’s leadership, SEPS has also taken a collaborative approach to financial education. The regulation states that FSPs regulated by SEPS must take steps to address gender-based exclusion in access to financial knowledge by implementing training programs to equip individuals with the skills and understanding needed to use financial services responsibly and efficiently. Each institution must submit a biannual report to SEPS outlining their initiatives. The regulation is supported by other regulatory measures, such as those on Financial Education and Good Governance, which have also been mainstreamed with a gender perspective with the support of CAF and the IDB.
In its first year of implementation, bolstered by initiatives such as Global Money Week, capacity-building efforts successfully reached over 270,000 Ecuadorians. Notably, women represented more than half of the participants and, in certain instances, accounted for up to 75% of those engaged: “These initiatives have become part of their regulatory compliance, which fosters a win-win environment that strengthens sector-wide trust.”
Step 5: Enable data-driven decision-making to catalyze market awareness
Dr. Margarita recognized the power of data transparency to drive meaningful change. To support the gender-focused strategy, SEPS, with the help of CAF, launched a groundbreaking public data portal showcasing gender-disaggregated statistics, including 62 indicators—marking a first in Ecuador’s history. These metrics cover a range of topics, from access to deposit and credit products to representation and financial education: “By showing the number of underserved women, financial service providers are starting to see the potential of targeting groups like female entrepreneurs. The data shows them they’re missing opportunities, creating an unspoken pressure to serve more women.”
Regulated entities are required to report quarterly on financial education programs, segmented by factors such as gender, education level, marital status, and economic activity. They must also publish gender-related indicators on their websites, spanning a wide range—from the average loan amount granted by gender to the percentage of internal promotions by gender.
“By showing the number of underserved women, financial service providers are starting to see the potential of targeting groups like female entrepreneurs. The data shows them they’re missing opportunities, creating an unspoken pressure to serve more women.”
The legacy of Dr. Margarita and the future of financial inclusion in Ecuador
Dr. Margarita’s term at SEPS was extended beyond its original timeline due to her outstanding contributions to Ecuador’s financial landscape. As a result of the effective management of this roadmap and the subsequent implementation of the regulation; over six years, the gap in the credit amount granted by cooperatives and mutual societies to men and women narrowed by 7.8 percentage points (from 20.8% to 13%). Additionally, the share of credit granted to women in the total loan portfolio increased by 2.8 percentage points (from 38.8% to 41.6%).
To ensure regulations work for everyone—especially in contexts with highly gendered norms—regulators must place gender at the center of their approach. This means identifying the interplay between existing norms and gender-blind regulation that could result in disparate outcomes, guided by institutional incentives to act and the capacity to implement and monitor compliance effectively. By drawing inspiration from SEPS Ecuador, regulators and policymakers worldwide can chart their own path toward a more equitable and empowering financial future.
