Loans, access to credit penalizes women: they get half as many as men

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If you tell it through data, studies and analyses, finance does not seem like a very favorable environment for women. Whether we talk about it thinking about access to credit and the possibility of making investments by women in general, or whether we talk about it thinking about the specific employment and remuneration front of the sector.

There is also a gender gap in access to credit

What speaks are the studies and analyzes carried out by the sector unions, starting from the self-employed workers of Fabi which is the most representative. Overall, the gender credit gap is worth almost 70 billion on a national scale, says Fabi. The stock of loans to families granted by institutions in 2023 amounted to over 474 billion euros: of these 164 billion were disbursed to men, 95 billion to women and 216 billion refer to joint financing contracts.

The worst and best regions

The worst regions are Campania, Puglia, Veneto, Sicily, Basilicata, Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria, where the credit granted to female customers does not exceed the national average of 20%. The three best, however, are Valle d’Aosta, Sardinia and Lazio where bank financing reaches 25%, 23.2% and 22.9% respectively. In Molise, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Marche, Trentino-Alto Adige, Abruzzo, Tuscany and Liguria, the female credit shares range from 20.8% to 22.4%.

Sileoni: «Specific measures to reduce the gap»

In the reading of these data by the general secretary of Fabi, Lando Maria Sileoni, «the distance between credit and women does not divide Italy in two, but widens gender discrimination and if financial inclusion still represents a pillar for the economic and social growth of the country, even the “money” factor must make a difference. Throughout Italy, however, there is a wide disparity between men and women in access to bank credit. It is a problem that arises in the bank, but it is not the responsibility of the banks if, unfortunately, these differences exist, which arise from afar, from social and even cultural reasons. The same disparities are found, among other things, with regards to salaries and pensions, which are lower for women, factors which then influence access to credit. It is necessary to study all possible measures to reduce these gaps. Gender equality must not remain just a slogan, but must concretely start from financial inclusion. The banks, from their point of view, could do their part by increasing dedicated loans at subsidized rates.” Sileoni calls for two proposals in particular: the first is to “evaluate specific forms of public guarantee for women, not just entrepreneurs”, the other is to “study tax incentives, for example to increase deductions on interest paid to banks” .

Women’s pensions are lighter than those of men

The differences in access to credit are also a reflection of lower employment rates and pay packets, as well as the fact that it is only in recent years that there has been a certain push towards female employment in our country. The consequence is that gender differences have also reached social security, with female pensions heavily penalized. In fact, Italian pensioners receive, on average, a monthly allowance of 1,416 euros, while men receive 1,932 euros on average. Despite being numerically superior (8.3 million compared to 7.8 million men), women were entitled, according to data at the end of 2022, of the 321 billion disbursed in total, 141 billion, while men received approximately 180 billion. In relative terms therefore, women’s pensions are 36% “lighter” than men’s, despite women receiving on average greater pension benefits than men (80% of male pensioners benefit from only one benefit, compared to 64% of women, while 7% of women receive three services, compared to 3% of men). Fabi explains that «this apparent inconsistency, obtained from processing of Covip and Istat data, is due to the fact that women mainly receive types of pensions characterized by lower amounts: in 2022, only 20% of women benefited from early pensions , those on average higher, compared to 50% of men. Furthermore, even within the same type of performance, there are large gender-related differences. If we consider the average incomes deriving from individual benefits, those reserved for men on average exceed those of women with peaks of around 50% in old age and disability pensions”. Less seniority of contributions, lower hourly pay, use of part time work and use of leave are the other pieces that explain the differences in pension benefits.