The Feminist Finance Podcast Alice Merry

In this episode, I speak with Garance Wattez-Richard, CEO of AXA Emerging Customers. Garance set up the business in 2016 as part of AXA insurance company to reach customers not traditionally served by insurance. It now has over 18 million customers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Previously, Garance led AXA's strategic efforts to better serve women customers.

If you've ever struggled to get senior management in your company to see the strategic opportunity of addressing women customers, then this episode is for you. Garance gives us a masterclass in creating practical change from the inside of a financial institution.

Garance was awarded the Schwab Foundation award for Corporate Social Intrapreneur in 2019, and the Geneva Association's first Women in Insurance award in 2020.

Dr Sara Reis is Head of Research and Policy at the Women's Budget Group. In this episode she shares the findings of the group's research into the economic position of migrant women in the UK. We speak about how UK immigration policies impact on the economic opportunities of migrant women, and the impact of both COVID-19 and Brexit and the already vulnerable position of many migrants in the UK.

Take a look at the Migrant Women and the Economy report to find out more: https://wbg.org.uk/analysis/latest-report-migrant-women-and-the-economy/
And watch the report launch webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkYtLtmCoY

I also talk about the Homebrewed Feminism podcast, which you can find at homebrewedfeminism.com

Mercedes Bidart is cofounder of Quipu Market, a company which takes the idea of a community currency and marketplace and updates it for our age. Quipu market allows marginalised micro-businesses to buy and sell within their communities through a digital marketplace and using a digital community currency. The aim is to build and maintain wealth locally.

In this episode, I speak with Mercedes about the intensive co-design process behind Quipu, the challenges of launching in a pandemic, and the importance of creating solidarity economies.

You can find out more about Quipu on their website: quipumarket.com

This episode is a deep dive into the realities of digital financial services for women. Savita Bailur and Hélène Smertnik work at Caribou Digital, a research and advisory firm that helps its clients build inclusive and ethical digital economies. Both have worked intensively on understanding how women around the world are experiencing the shift to digital finance.

They share the importance of building trust and control into digital financial services, and the small changes to product features that can do so. We also dig into women's experiences of online work, and the opportunities as well as the huge challenges digital platforms offer women.

Find out more about Caribou Digital: cariboudigital.net

In this episode, we dig into the strange world of blockchain. Thankfully, we have Lisa Gus as our guide. Lisa is Co-founder and CEO of WishKnish, the company behind the distributed ledger technology knish.io. Lisa is also Co-Founder of VeeSee.org, and Investment and Startup Lead at the Government Blockchain Association.

We talk not only about payments and cryptocurrency, but also about childcare, the reporting of sexual harassment, and the mental health of founders. Lisa's work with blockchain encompasses all of these issues and more.

Find out more at knish.io

In this episode I speak with Ramil Añosa Andag, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics rights officer at APCOM. We delve into research conducted by APCOM into various areas of discrimination and exclusion faced by LGBTQI communities and how these link with financial inclusion.

Ramil explains why APCOM is reaching out to new actors, including development banks and the financial sector, in its efforts to improve the health and rights of LGBTQI communities in Asia and the Pacific. And we discuss how traditional and digital financial services must move beyond traditional binaries in order to become more inclusive.

You can find out more about APCOM at apcom.org