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The aim of the paper is to analyse female and male loan officers' (LOs) risk aversion as they assess different types of small- and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) loan applications.

The data were gathered from a sample of 75 Swedish LOs, using the repertory grid technique and related questions. The data were analysed statistically.

The findings demonstrate that female LOs focus more on collateral (used as a proxy for risk aversion) in their evaluations of first-time loan applications than male LOs. However, the findings also suggest that there are no significant differences between the two groups as far as risk aversion when they evaluate additional loan applications. The other variables controlled for (age, tenure, insight, education, and location) did not significantly affect the LOs' risk aversion.

The study might have benefited from the use of complementary data collection approaches. Access to actual assessment and decision-making procedures could have increased the understanding of female and male LOs' attitudes toward risk.

The findings suggest that by the use of female-male LO teams, banks may achieve more balanced assessments of SMEs' loan applications.

To the authors' knowledge, the literature has not explicitly addressed risk aversion among female and male LOs with respect to different types of bank loans. Moreover, the authors investigated risk aversion in the context of standardised assessments procedures used to reduce exposure to credit risk.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are known for their contribution to the women empowerment and poverty alleviation but it is not clear about the role of gender on the performance of this industry. It is important to explore the representation of both the gender in three levels, namely, decision-making, day-to-day management and implementation of the micro-financial services. This study aims to examine the impact of female board members, female managers and female field officers on the financial and social performance of the MFIs.

The authors have used random effect panel data analysis. The study covers 104 MFIs operating in India. The time period of the analysis is from 2010 to 2014.

The study has shown that as the number of female directors within the board increase there is an increase in cost per borrower. This is an indication that more female clients are being targeted. The increase in number of female managers leads to an increase in the number of active borrowers. The increase in the number of female staff members leads to an increase of operational self-sufficiency and yield of the gross portfolio.

The present study has faced a lot of limitation due to the non-availability of the secondary data on the governance system of the microfinance industry. The study could not be undertaken for an extended period because of the unavailability of data for a long period.

This study has highlighted the role of gender in case of performance of microfinance institutions. The gender diversity at the field level has shown to enhance the financial performance of the MFIs. So, the MFIs should try to bring gender diversity at the operation level.

This study has shown that an increase of woman directors at the board level increase female clients of MFIs. The increase of female managers also enhances number of female clients. So, the gender diversity at the managerial level and director level help MFIs to meet their social performance by reaching to more number of needy female clients.

The gender diversity at the three levels, namely, board level, managerial level and field operation level has not been analyzed in the Indian context. In India MFIs mainly target the female clients so in this context having gender diversity at the three levels of operation of the MFIs, which can improve both the financial and social performance of the MFIs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female bank lenders are locked into a position of disadvantage in a UK bank. The work of Bourdieu is used to explore women's position of disadvantage and inequality. As Bourdieu helps us predict, the women are symbolically constructed as different, and face different problems to men. Women's social capital is not perceived as the same as men's.

The research method involved preliminary research interviews with seven key senior staff in the bank followed by focus group discussions with 35 male and female bank loan officers on bank premises within a nine-month period. Six focus groups were held – three with men and three with women in four British cities – London, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh. All the interviews were tape-recorded and analysed. The participants were told that the discussion was completely confidential, and that we were interested in the role gender played in entrepreneurial and corporate life. Findings were verified by taking them back to a selection of those who had been involved in the focus groups.

The findings show how the power dynamics are played out within the immediate workplace environment and influenced by the wider macro systems of society. The women differed in their views as to whether gender mattered. Despite the evident inequities these women face, some wished to deny or resist being seen as unequal or wanted to acknowledge inequity. The paper explains how and why this might be the case.

The research is limited by its sample size to 35 bank loan officers.

The paper demonstrates some of the difficulties faced by those who wish to implement equality of opportunity in the face of women's denial of inequality.

The paper clearly illustrates the difficulties and challenges faced by female bank loan officers in banking.

This paper discusses the subjective experience of equality, inequality and exclusion among female bankers showing how they are not a homogenous group, as they say they experience equality/inequality differently. These women face ideological dilemmas that are not widely discussed in the research literature. It is very unlikely that as a divided, heterogeneous group who find themselves in a very small minority in this bank, that greater equality for them is likely to come about.

This paper aims to investigate whether loan officers' risk taking in credit decisions are associated with their personal financial risk preference and personality traits or solely with bank-contextual and loan-relevant factors.

An online survey administered in six large Swedish banks to 163 loan officers responsible for assessing credit risk and approval of loan applications. The loan officers rated their likelihood of approving fictitious loan applications from business companies.

The loan officers' credit risk taking is associated with bank-contextual factors, directly with perceived organizational credit risk norms and indirectly with self-confidence in assessing credit risks through attitude to credit risk taking. A direct association is also found with personal financial risk preference but not with personality traits.

Increased awareness of that loan officers' personal financial risk preference is associated with their credit risk taking in loan decisions but that the banks' risk policy has a stronger association. Banks' managements and boards should therefore assure that their credit risk policy is implemented, followed and being aligned with their performance incentives.

Increased awareness of that loan officers' credit risk taking is associated with personal financial risk preference but more strongly with the banks' risk policy that motivate banks' managements and boards to assure that their credit risk policy is implemented, followed and being aligned with their performance incentives.

The first study which directly compare the associations of loan officers' risk taking in credit approvals with personal risk preference and personality traits versus bank-contextual factors and loan-relevant information.

The authors investigate how a gender-diverse board, a gender-diverse executive team, or a female chief executive officer (CEO) impact bank balance sheet and equity risk.

Using panel data of U.S. bank holding companies over the period of 1992–2019, the authors conduct panel regressions with bank and year-fixed effects to analyze how female directors, female executives, and female CEOs impact a wide range of bank risk measures, controlling for the bank, board and executive characteristics.

The authors find female directors significantly reduce all types of risk. Female executives reduce some balance sheet risk but have an insignificant effect on bank equity risk. However, the presence of female CEOs does not significantly reduce bank risk-taking. During financial crises, female CEOs even increase equity risk.

The findings are important to shed light on the ongoing debate on how gender quota policy could be efficiently used to balance the need for gender diversity while ensuring corporate performance. It could also improve social welfare by guiding proper public policy to ensure the efficient use of social labor capital and curb banks' excessive risk-taking incentives.

The authors provide the first empirical evidence demonstrating that female directors and female executives in the banking industry have different impacts on bank risk-taking. The authors also provide the first empirical evidence that female leaders have a different impact on two different types of risks: balance sheet and equity risk. The study is also the first to analyze the impact of female executives over multiple financial crises.

The study aims to discern the primary obstacles confronted by the implementing agencies in their efforts to foster financial inclusion through the “Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana” (PMMY).

To collect primary data, a semi-structured questionnaire was developed. Around 120 loan officers from the implementing agencies (Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), Small Finance Banks (SFBs), Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Micro- Finance Institutions (MFIs)) of Haryana were randomly selected to fulfill the objectives. To categorize the perceived problems into discrete factors, the “factor analysis” technique was employed. The scales were then regressed on factors linked to the demographic characteristics of the loan officers to validate the hypotheses.

The study highlighted the primary obstacles impeding the advancement of financial inclusion, which encompass a range of factors. These include challenges in management, infrastructure, politics, finance and technology. Furthermore, the study established the association of the explanatory variables, namely gender, age, educational qualification, location and experience of the officers, with the extracted constraints. Notably, the experience of loan officers emerged as the most influential variable contributing to the promotion of financial inclusion through the scheme.

The current body of literature lacks any empirical investigation focusing on the perspectives of the implementing agencies regarding the challenges they encounter in advancing FI. Given the significance of FI in India, where access to formal financial services remains a critical issue, this research adds value by addressing the gaps in understanding the problems encountered.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2023-0462

The purpose of this paper is to question our faith in numbers. It asks how much credibility can numbers and quantification of data offer us as researchers?

The research asked the question “Does gender matter?” in the case of banks lending to male and female business owners. To test this the bank loan officers were given an identical fictional bank loan proposal from either Jack or Emma Jones. It was assumed that the more positive statements made, the more likely there would be a positive decision to lend to either Jack or Emma.

The main finding was that no link was found between the number of positive statements made and the final decision on whether or not to lend to either gender. While counting, we assume, injects precision into analysis, in this case it provided no support for the existence of a relationship between the numbers of positive statements and final decision on whether or not to lend. Some reasons are presented.

The paper features a small sample of 35 interviews. It would be interesting to see if this same finding is replicated in other studies of bank loan decision making using bank loan proposals and investigating the effect of gender on decisions.

This research builds upon the 1993 research of Fay and Williams.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the presence of gender-based discrimination in formal credit markets during the global financial crisis. Specifically, the study tests for gender differences in the probability of being credit-rationed, in the likelihood of being a discouraged borrower and in the price conditions of bank financing.

This paper uses the fifth wave of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS), which provides detailed micro data on firms from 26 transition economies in Europe and Central Asia. The empirical analysis employs linear and non-linear sample selection regression models and extended Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition techniques to assess gender differences in access to credit.

Controlling for a large set of observable firm characteristics and for endogenous selectivity, we find that female-led firms are more likely to face financing constraints and to be discouraged from applying for credit than their male counterparts. Conditional on having obtained a loan, female-led firms also face significantly higher interest rates. Furthermore, the observed gender gaps are mainly due to unexplained factors, supporting the hypothesis that banks discriminate against women-led firms in their credit-granting decision.

This study provides new insights on gender discrimination in formal credit markets, highlighting that gender differentials in access to credit significantly vary across countries and strongly depend upon the definition of the firm's gender structure. From a policy perspective, the evidence obtained stresses the need for policies aimed at promoting the role of women in the economic environment in order to reduce discrimination and raise competition in credit markets. Moreover, public interventions should support lending to creditworthy female enterprises in order to improve their perceptions about banks' willingness to grant credit and reduce their propensity to be discouraged from applying.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key channels through which gender is applied to financial research.

This paper is designed as a survey and review of relevant literature.

There are many theoretical and practical applications of gender in financial research.

This paper is the first to consolidate theoretical motivations for the use of gender in financial research.

Uncontrollable brain drain (employees’ turnover) has been found to hamper humanitarian and sustainable objectives of socially oriented organizations. Hence, this study aims to explore the roles of gender and organizational-level factors on the rate of employees’ turnover in microfinance institutions (MFIs).

The study used an unbalanced panel data of 235 MFIs spanning the period 2010–2019. Based on the availability of the required data set on the World Bank catalogue (in collaboration with Microfinance Information Exchange-MIX Market), this study covers four South Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Then, the authors analyzed the data using the conventional panel data regression techniques (e.g. fixed effects model and random effects model).

The regression results revealed that women leaders (board members) could significantly reduce the employee turnover rate of MFIs. Although the efficiency wage hypothesis is supported in this study, it depends on the profit orientation of the MFIs. This study also confirmed that financial sustainability and donations have helped MFIs to reduce their employees’ turnover, which reiterates the image and brand value effect of MFIs. Moreover, the overall gender development and legal status (e.g. Bank and Non-Bank Financial Institutions) have also been found to have an effect on employees’ turnover based on the sub-sample analysis.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is among the first to investigate the impact of gender and institutional characteristics on employees’ turnover based on a large and recent panel dataset from selected South Asian countries.