The Need for Gender-Disaggregated Data in the Financial Sector

Haocong is a lead financial sector specialist and pillar lead of CGAP’s policy and investment team. Prior to joining CGAP, she spent almost 20 years at the World Bank (WB). She was a senior financial sector specialist in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation (FCI) team in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank from 2021 to 2024. She led/co-led the financial sector work programs for Azerbaijan and Georgia, and coordinates FCI’s work programs across the South Caucasus. Before that, she worked in the Middle East and North Africa Region of the WB, led the financial sector work program in Lebanon from 2019 to 2021 including during the onset and early stages of the financial crisis, leading the policy dialogue with the government and Banque du Liban. She also worked on various financial sector issues in several other countries in the region (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and West Bank and Gaza). Prior to joining the regional team in 2017, she worked in the global team responsible for financial stability and integrity issues within the FCI Global Practice of the WB. She helped coordinate the WB engagement with the Financial Stability Board on financial regulatory reforms, leveraging WB’s global engagements with various standard-setting bodies. She also worked extensively on financial sector issues in China from 2009 to 2017. She participated in several Financial Sector Assessment Programs, including as WB deputy mission chief for the China FSAP Update 2017 and Kuwait FSAP Update 2018, and as WB mission chief for the Georgia FSAP Update 2021. Her work has covered a range of topics, including financial regulatory reforms, state-owned financial institutions, crisis management, supervisory governance and structure, SME finance, digital financial services, climate and green agenda, and capital market development, etc. During 2005-2008, Haocong worked in the International Finance Team of the WB’s Economic Prospects Group and was a member of the core team on a World Bank flagship publication Global Development Finance.

Haocong received a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Peking University (China) and an M.Phil. Degree in Economics from the George Washington University. She is a CFA charterholder.

Jorge has more than 20 years of professional experience in private sector development performing strategic and investment functions with development finance institutions, impact investors, retail banks, and regulators. He has designed and executed strategies, products, and investment projects for MSMEs, Women-owned enterprises, climate smart finance, education, and housing. Most recently, within IFC’s Banking on Women program he has a leading role in the advancement of IFC’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy with financial institutions globally, across all sectors in which they invest. 

 Jorge has a Master of Science in Project Analysis, Finance and Investments from the University of York in the United Kingdom and a Master’s Degree in Microfinance and Social Development from Universidad de Alcala in Spain. 

Anushe has more than 20 years of private sector experience in financial services in emerging markets, firstly as a banker in the areas of credit, loans and guarantees addressing the needs of SMEs, retail and corporate sectors, followed by extensive experience in IFC, in financing MSMEs through the financial services sector in emerging markets. She has led projects with banks, non-bank Financial Institutions and other financial services providers, focusing on SMEs, Women-owned enterprises and under-served segments in rural areas. Most recently, within IFC’s Banking on Women program she leads IFC’s global investment and advisory services facilities for the Financial Institutions Group such as the Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative (WE-FI), the Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility (WEOF), supported by IFC and the Goldman Sachs Foundation.  Anushe holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Georgetown University, USA and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the Institute of Business Administration in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Jessica Schnabel is the Global Head of IFC’s Banking on Women business. With over 25 years of experience in emerging markets finance, she is responsible for building IFC's portfolio with financial institutions in emerging markets, to radically scale-up financial services for women and women-owned SMEs. In this role, she has led her team to invest over US$4.6 billion and provide technical expertise to over 150 financial institutions in 76 emerging market countries to build profitable financial solutions for women SME customers. Building partnerships with public and private-sector organizations, IFC’s Banking on Women business has been at the forefront of innovations such as the Banking on Women-Global Trade Finance Program and the Gender Bond, using action-oriented data analytics and achieving tangible financial and development results. Her prior experience focused on investment and advisory services including a range of debt, equity, and balance sheet risk-management investments in commercial banks, private equity funds, and asset finance companies in emerging markets. Ms. Schnabel holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and a master’s degree from the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University 

Tatiana Alonso has over 15 years of experience in the fields of public policy and financial regulation, with a focus on assessing and developing policy frameworks that enable stable, efficient, and inclusive financial systems. A member of CGAP’s Fostering Responsible Enabling Ecosystems Pillar, she currently leads work on gender disaggregated data and participates to CGAP’s work on climate change, crisis response, and regulatory architecture.

A Senior Economist from Bank of Spain by profession, Tatiana worked as a Senior Financial Sector Specialist in the World Bank from 2018 to 2022, where she supported the IMF-WB joint FSAP program, the Bank’s representation in the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and, more broadly, the Bank’s global engagement advocating for EMDEs in financial policy matters. She also worked for over a decade in the private sector (BBVA, NERA).

Tatiana holds a MSc degree in Economics and Finance from CEMFI, a Master’s Degree in Economics of Energy from Universidad Carlos III, and a B.A in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University. She has published research papers and other analytical pieces in several journals and public platforms. She is based in Paris and speaks Spanish and Catalan (native), English, French and Italian.

Yasmin Bin-Humam currently supports CGAP’s project on supply-side gender disaggregated data for financial sector regulators and supervisors. She also leads CGAP’s work stream on the nexus of gender norms and financial sector regulation and supervisory practices, and continues to support institutional change management for CGAP’s application of a gender lens across all CGAP work programs. 

Previously Yasmin launched and managed the FinEquity Community of Practice on women’s financial inclusion, led exploration of women’s participation in informal online commerce, and shepherded CGAP’s initial diagnostics of social norms barriers to women’s financial inclusion. 

Before joining CGAP, Yasmin developed indicators measuring women’s equality under the law for the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law project and contributed to publications on legal barriers to women’s economic empowerment. Her previous research includes the historical evolution of labor and family law reform in countries around the world, and she has compiled legislation on banking, nonbank financial institutions, and consumer protection regulations. Her earlier work experience spans the public, private, and nongovernmental sectors.

Yasmin has Juris Doctorate and Master’s degrees from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard.