What started as a support group for women employees at JPMorgan Chase has become so successful that it’s being extended to the general public nationwide in the form of $10 billion in credit for women entrepreneurs until 2021.
The multi-billion-dollar, three-year commitment is significant given that female start-up founders gained only $1.9 billion (or 2%) of the $85 billion total invested by venture capitalists last year, according to data released by venture capital research company PitchBook.
“We will work with small business owners who are women wherever they are within multiple industries and then we're enabling our bankers to talk to women about the issues facing them in their businesses like how to manage your cash flow, succession planning and how to deal with vendors,” said Samantha Saperstein, leader of the JPMorgan Chase program, called Women on the Move.
The expanded initiative also demonstrates the bank’s second priority, which is to make itself the best company for women to work for by hiring, developing and promoting more of them internally. JPMorgan Chase employs about 250,000 workers. “As we try to increase the representation of women at every level in every role, that will include women advisors, too,” Saperstein told Financial Advisor.
Co-founded by Mary Callahan Erdoes, who has since become J.P. Morgan's Asset & Wealth Management CEO, Women on the Move originally was a tour of senior women connecting with and listening to their colleagues around the world. From there, it built out 39 chapters across six continents and in 2016 announced the first annual Women on the Move Leadership Day.
“The goal is to bring a very concerted, purposeful effort across all of our internal and external activities so that we can really try to move the needle for women in various aspects of their lives whether it's their careers, their businesses or their financial lives,” Saperstein said.
The financial services industry overall is falling short when it comes to understanding women in the workforce, according to consulting group Kantar in its “Winning Over Women” study. But Chase is among the banks that is recognizing and responding to the growing number of female business owners.
“It’s easy to sideline gender,” said Barbara Cador, global head of Kantar’s insights division. “Chase is an interesting example because it connects both genders equally.”
Chase Bank was recently lauded at a press conference hosted by Kantar for ranking among the top three financial institutions for outstanding performance and customer experience, following USAA and Regions Bank in first and second place, respectively.
“We want to be there for the women who are starting businesses because we know that often their financing options are very few when they're starting their businesses,” said Saperstein.