> Posted by Jeffrey Riecke, Communications Associate, CFI
What’s the percentage of MFI clients worldwide that are LGBT? How about the percentage of staff at MFIs? Broader yet, how inclusive is the financial services industry of queer and trans people?
As you’d probably guess, concrete answers to these questions aren’t available. And even raising the issue is controversial in many countries. Over the past year anti-gay legislation was enacted in Russia, Nigeria, Uganda, and India. The notion of financial institutions working towards LGBT-inclusive operations is far off in many countries.
But here in the U.S. (and in other areas worldwide) change is happening, as demonstrated at the Out on the Street Summit last week in New York City. The event, part of the Out on the Street initiative, featured senior leadership from some of the largest financial services providers in the world, including Michael Corbat, CEO of Citigroup, and Ajay Banga, President and CEO of MasterCard. Held on May 1, the event focused on business opportunities and leadership strategies for and within the LGBT community, as well as the financial services industry’s role in advancing LGBT equality.
The financial services industry, with its immense reach, is well-positioned to help set an example for all businesses when it comes to LGBT equality. The Out on the Street Summits and movement seek to set a forward-looking inclusion agenda, driving strategy and change for LGBT equality and its business case.
This was the fourth annual Out on the Street Summit in New York City. In recent years, the movement has gained momentum, expanding its programming from New York to also include annual summits in London and in Hong Kong, which are both held each fall.
Along with Citigroup and MasterCard, speakers at last week’s summit included Barclays, Wells Fargo, Moody’s, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley. The event also incorporated non-financial ally organizations, including The New York Times, CBS News, and the National Football League.
Revealing one’s sexual orientation in the workplace is still seen as risky. Only 11 percent of millennials are “out” at work, while 61 percent are out at school, according to a study from the Human Rights Campaign. Why the enormous difference?
Before the 2013 summit in London, event organizers conducted a survey and asked LGBT respondents what straight allies need to do to improve workplace equality. The top response was speaking up in defense of LGBTs – in meetings, to clients, to managers, and to coworkers. Other popular answers were supporting a coworker who is coming out of the closet, attending an event in support of LGBTs, and telling colleagues in conversation that they are a straight ally.
Image credit: Mauricio Lima/ Getty Images
Have you read?
Finance for All by 2020 in Order to End Extreme Poverty by 2030
CFI Joins Industry Leaders in Impressing Financial Inclusion to the G20
Financial Inclusion… For Whom? Considering Immigration and Citizenship
Facebook
Twitter
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 10, 2014 at 4:40 am
John Gitau
We are going too far! When bedroom activities preferences becomes a criteria in financial services discussion and even coming to the forefront, then we have lost direction and sense of priority. One fails to see the relevance of this topic in the anatomy of poverty and its remedies. The more we split beneficiaries of financial inclusion to their sub-categories( to the extent of sexual practices) the more ridiculous we appear. Next time we shall be talking FS( financial services) for blacks, FS for whites, FS for those with bad breath, FS for short people, FS for tall people, FS for the barren, FS for widowers, FS for desert people, FS for the hot tempered, FS for the demented and before long, we shall be in Chicken Soup for—line of business. I think gender and physical ability are two sufficient categorizations to address financial services. I think Poor People, being those living on less than $2 a day basis of classification should suffice in our search for solution in financial services access.
May 10, 2014 at 6:24 am
John Gitau
Reblogged:https://cfi-blog.org/2014/03/11/microfinance-industry-needs-an-infrastructure-fix/
Let’s build the infrastructure before going to bed. Wondering how far we are in the carpentry!
May 14, 2014 at 4:27 pm
Meghan Johnson
I think it is absolutely worth asking these questions, especially because microfinance’s main focus is the developing world, where homosexuality is generally not accepted. I think it’s important for microfinance organizations to be sensitive to employees and consultants who may be moving from Western countries to parts of the world where their way of life will not be respected. How might their sexual orientation/expression be received by local employees? How can the organization ease that transition?
I don’t necessarily think that MFOs need to treat LGBT clients different than others, or target them specifically. But gathering data around LGBT clients and employees is worthwhile in an industry that works predominantly in developing countries where homophobia is rampant (and often written into law).
Thank you to CFI for broaching this sensitive topic.
May 15, 2014 at 1:25 am
John Gitau
Meghan, is sexual orientation a factor in access to financial services? Are there financial access forms that get filled that seeks to establish the sexual orientation of a potential client? If two people are accessing an ATM for example, one straight and the other gay, who would know except themselves and how has the orientation got to do with withdrawing money from an ATM machine? You see, if it was an issue of disability and access to financial services as a concern, it makes sense because a person with disability may not be able to access the ATM due to height for example or visual incapacitation.
It now appears like we have exhausted all topics for discussion and we are on the invisible. How far do we go? LGBT isn’t a challenge that needs answers in financial inclusion. Even if it were, it may not be urgent. Think about how much resources our leaders in financial inclusion have spent being party to this event as highlighted in this post and let us ask ourselves if they have spent similar energy and finance on financial access for people with disability not unless we want to consider LGBT as a form of disability needing more urgent attention than any other form of disability as far as access to financial services is concerned. It is starting to become embarrassing being associated with financial inclusion if this is the sense of priority we are adopting.
May 15, 2014 at 2:01 pm
erhyne
Hi, John — I think the top concern of the post was about workplace acceptance of LGBT people (as employees and co-workers), more than about going out to target them as a special group of customers.
May 16, 2014 at 4:05 am
John Gitau
Then there is a disconnect between the opening paragraph and the last paragraph and confusion in the middle about the meeting attended by the top leadership of financial services providers to discuss business opportunities– and business strategies for and within the LGBT community. I was just interested in the contextual relevance to see if there is something to learn, curious because sexual orientation is not a distinctive physical feature worth of advocacy in financial inclusion space.