Mexico City — Although accessing the stock market is becoming easier, in Mexico only 2 in 10 women invest in financial instruments, according to an analysis by GBM, a Mexican brokerage firm.
Uneven working conditions and fewer assets are key factors blocking access to financial services and products, the bank says in a report.
At the end of 2021, there were 3,096 million investment accounts in Mexico, according to the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). Out of this figure, more than 2.77 million are held by GBM alone, 24% of which belong to a woman, says the brokerage firm.
In a separate study, US asset management and pension fund Fidelity Investments agrees that low salaries and lack of confidence hurt the chances of increasing the number of female investors.
“Having more money to invest leads to stronger wealth accumulation. In that sense, women are at flagrant disadvantage due to the persistent gender wage gap,” the analysis said.
Of the 58.1 million economically active people in Mexico, nearly 39% are women, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
The pandemic, however, altered the data. About 2.7 million women stopped working and, although economic activity has gradually been restored, the numbers have yet to recover.
Considering the total amount of people with access to formal savings products, 0.7% of women do so in a mutual fund, this represents an increase of 4 percentage points compared to 2018, according to Inegi.
Gender and investment
Although the participation of men is higher compared to women, there are some differences when it comes to investing.
Women are less impulsive and analyze short- and long-term scenarios; they also invest towards specific goals and purposes.
“Women tend to be better informed than men prior to making decisions; they are excellent managers of assets; they anticipate returns with greater patience, which is the key to successful investments; and they invest with well-defined goals and purposes,” GBM said.
But Fidelity found that certain fears can also work against them, as women tend to leave long-term savings invested in an age-based allocation that, in some cases, is unprofitable.
Only 9% of all women investors consider themselves to be good investors compared to men, despite the fact that they reportedly show better returns by up to 1%.
“The The University of New South Wales in Sydney noted in a study that, in financial markets, women can outperform men,” GBM’s head of Advisor Acquisition, Alicia Arias, said in a statement.
In 2021, Fidelity reported that women’s portfolios outperformed compared to men by 40 basis points.
GBM told Bloomberg Línea that 35% of women invest fixed income. “40% in equities and ETFs, and 7% in mutual funds.”
The percentages are not complementary as one woman can invest in fixed income, equities and mutual funds.
Younger women are more proactive when it comes to financial decision-making. According to the GBM study, the most representative investor group is aged between 24 and 34 years old, representing 48% of the total.
The states with the highest concentration of women investors are Mexico City, Mexico State, Jalisco, Veracruz and Nuevo Leon.Given the constraints existing in the performance and development of the women’s labor market, GBM believes that more instruments should be developed to adapt to their needs and stages of life.