The Purse

Welcome to our #212 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight new research which outlines what women look for in financial services products. And therefore how they can feel more included by the financial services industry which typically targets the male customer.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Report: what women want from financial services products so they engage more

New research by Solaris highlights what needs to change in the financial services industry so women engage more with financial products.

A new report by Solaris, a card company, highlights women’s needs when it comes to using financial products and how to ensure women feel more included by the financial services industry.

Not surprisingly, women prioritise long term security over short term gains. As we know, women experience more career breaks or interruptions than men, on average are paid less and invest less (although this is changing now).

By implication, women have less wealth compared to men (on average).

When asked what women look for when obtaining financial services, they listed security, openness and inclusion as key.

What financial services products do women use most (and least)?

96% of our survey respondents said they use online banking services. Unsurprisingly, the most used financial services are everyday products including debit cards and mobile banking.

But retail investment continues to be low. In 2022, only around 18% of Germans aged 14 and over owned shares or equities, compared to 33% in the UK and over 50% in the US. The least popular financial services products for women are listed below:

Often the way ETFs, stocks, and other investment products — especially cryptocurrencies and NFTs — are designed, and other barriers to entry, often put women off from buying them.

The barriers holding women back in how they use financial products

According to Alicia Close, senior manager, cards business at Solaris:

There is at least $330billion annual global revenue waiting to be unlocked by giving women better access to finance..

…It’s time to ask the question, ‘Where are the products that serve them?’ This research reveals refreshingly simple yet powerful solutions that providers can start turning to in order to remove the barriers for women within current financial services products.”

So what are the barriers preventing women from using financial services?

So what do women want from their financial products?

Given the low uptake of ETFs, stocks, and other investment products, long-term financial health is our respondents’ single most important priority.

The low number of respondents who are marginally interested in increasing their social status is especially significant because this continues to be at odds with the marketing in the majority of financial services firms

Increasing financial literacy is key

* 85% of respondents believe there needs to be a bigger push towards educating women about money

* 80% believe that the earlier in women's lives this happens, the better.

* And 68% of the respondents said that women should be more open about money. Normalising these kinds of conversations makes it easier to share knowledge and, in turn, for women to learn the best ways to manage their finances.

Looking ahead

Based on the report:

…personalisation is increasingly becoming a strategic imperative for businesses, including banks, fintechs, and other financial services providers. Unfortunately, the fintech workplace is still very much a man's world, and women's perspectives are all too often overlooked or, at best, dismissed as 'niche'.

But women are the opposite of a niche market.

They're an extremely diverse group of individuals making up over half of the world's population. And that means putting them at the heart of financial services product design isn't just the right thing to do.

It's smart business.

What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Podcast:

* #90: Fintech, building a scale-up, female founders and fundraising with Sabrina Del Prete

* #103: Women's growing economic power and how the financial services industry needs to change with Sarah Courtney Dockett

* #104: Why every woman needs a financial plan with Kristine Beese

News in Brief

Financial news

* China slid back into deflation in October, suggesting domestic demand remains sluggish even after recent stimulus efforts to shore up growth.

* Year-end rally? What year-end rally? S&P 500 Equal Weight Index lost 1.8% this week, while S&P 500 showed a 1.3% gain. That boost was all thanks to Magnificent 7, surging 3.8%.

* Friday, the FTSE 100 index was now down just over one hundred points, or 1.35%, at 7354, on track for its biggest one-day loss since August.

* Moody's changes outlook on US rating to negative citing massive fiscal deficit & political polarisation which exacerbates fiscal risks. But affirms AAA rating.

* US debt interest bill rockets past a cool $1tn a year. It is 4% of annual US GDP. It has doubled in 19 months. It is equivalent to 16.3% of the entire Federal budget for fiscal year 2022.

* The UK economy flatlined between July and September, compared with the previous three months, as the impact of high interest rates and inflation weighed on consumers and businesses.

* Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway continues to sell stocks. Conglomerate offloads more than $5bn worth of US & international shares.

* Over the last 120 years 98% of all countries where sovereign debt/GDP hit 130% ended up defaulting.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin rallies past Terra crash level. Rises to highest level in 18 months, before Terra collapse. Bloomberg analysis sees the chance for a Spot Bitcoin ETF at 90% by January 10. But Bitcoin is only halfway to reclaiming the heights of 2021 crypto mania when it peaked at $69,000. Over the past seven days, BTC is up nearly 8% and trading hands for $37,369, according to CoinGecko. 

* Ethereum crossed the $2,000 mark for the first time since July; it is currently up over 14% over the week. 

* Solana (SOL) has soared above $50 per coin, and priced at $54.54—a more than 38% weekly rise. 

* Chainlink (LINK) has experienced a 33% seven-day rise—making it the next best gainer after SOL out of the top 20 coins and tokens. It is currently trading for $15.10 per token. 

* CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill has said that investors have poured over $1.07 billion into digital asset investment products so far this year.

* JPMorgan says 'crypto rally looks overdone'. They are “cautious on crypto markets going forward.”

Coffee Break? Read This

* High-earners need 25% payrise to cover loss of childcare support

* In this neverending news cycle of violence, art speaks to our shared humanity

* Marriage is an inherently misogynistic institution – so why do women agree to it?

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #211 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight new research which indicates that male workers saved an average 30% more than in 2022, whereas women only increased their savings by 7% over the same period.

For this reason, the cost-of-living crisis is having a more profound affect on women’s mental health.

***

Don’t forget to the listen to The Purse Podcast interview with CEO/Founder, Kristine Beese. We talk about why she founded Untangle Money, why every woman should have a financial plan and how the financial services industry is ripe for change.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Women have added only 7% more to their saving pots

New research by The Exeter highlights the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on women.

According to new research by UK health and protection insurer The Exeter, there is a rapidly growing divide between the saving power of men and women, as reported by IFA Magazine.

Whilst over a third of UK workers (12 million people) – are saving less than £100 per month in 2023, male workers saved an average 30% more than in 2022, whereas women only increased their savings by 7% over the same period.

Moreover, women are more likely to experience adverse mental health effects because of the ongoing squeeze on incomes.

More than eight out of ten women (81%) are worried about the spiralling cost-of-living, compared to a smaller proportion of men (69%).

And unlike men, women are less likely to access insurance products that could protect their incomes in the event they are unable to work due to an accident or long-term illness.

According to Emma Thomson, Head of Protection Development at Sesame Bankhall Group and Chair of the Women in Protection Network:

“While it is important to recognise that many people are struggling, it is equally important to acknowledge that women and their finances are more impacted by the current cost-of-living crisis.  In a time where money is tight, this gender savings gap is depleting the reserves of the UK’s female workforce and hampering their efforts to plan for their future or safeguard their finances against illness. 

It is so important that protection advisers and providers work together to ensure women can access quality protection during one of the most challenging personal finance periods in modern history. Women should not feel alone during this crisis, and we must ensure they benefit from the financial reassurance and wider support that we can provide as an industry.” 

On average, women in the UK have savings of £11,698, while men have almost twice the amount, £23,951.

However, it is important to note that although more men have savings when compared to women, the women that do tend to have more significant amounts saved than men.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Global stocks are on course for their biggest weekly gain in a year as investors are betting that there won’t be any more interest rate rises in major economies, while bonds rallied.

* Global bonds have gained $793bn in value as we are seeing cooling across US employment, global inflation, global manufacturing sentiment, and global monetary policy.

* Japan Yen weakened to 160 per Euro for the first time since August 2008 as the Bank of Japan is sticking to its negative key interest rates.

* The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at a 22-year high on Wednesday, with inflation continuing to fade from its highest level in a generation,

* Gold back ~$2k/oz. as US 10 year real rates plunge to 2.16% following weak US jobs data.

* US yield curve bull steepens following disappointing US jobs data w/US 2s/10s yield spread ticked up 2bps to -31.6bps.

* Eurozone inflation sinks to 2 year low as Eurozone economy shrinks: CPI slowed to 2.9% in October, down from 4.3% and better than expected 3.1%. But Core CPI – that excluding food & energy is retreating less rapidly. It moderated to 4.2% in October from 4.5% the previous month.

* X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it a year ago. X is worth $19bn a year after the $44bn purchase.

* Bank of England's Pill: Inflation won't necessarily fall fast as demand slows. He spoke a day after the central bank held its benchmark interest rate at 5.25% (the highest since the 2008 financial crisis) for a second meeting in a row.

* Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sits on record cash pile. The conglomerate’s quarterly net loss widened to $12.8bn, stung by the stock market downturn mainly an 11.7% drop in the Apple share price.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Another “Uptober” for Bitcoin: the largest cryptocurrency gained 28% in October, most since Jan2023.

* Bitcoin (BTC) tried and failed at holding above $35,000 this week, with one analyst arguing traders likely took their BTC profits and rotated into altcoins, pushing those prices higher.

* Large-cap tokens of layer 1 networks (L1) such as Avalanche (AVAX), Cardano (ADA) and Polkadot (DOT) jumped 10%-15% over the same time frame and Solana (SOL) hit a 14-month high Wednesday and Friday afternoon remained higher by 25% over the previous seven days.

* The CoinDesk DeFi Index (DCF) jumped almost 10% in a week, driven by double-digit rallies by tokens of decentralized exchange UniSwap (UNI), SushiSwap (SUSHI), as well as lending platform Aave's native token (AAVE).

* Magic Eden, Yuga Labs launching Ethereum NFT marketplace to enforce royalties.

* Nike-RTFKT's crypto universe nears $1.4 billion in NFT trading as sneakerheads swoon.

* Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of defrauding FTX customers out of billions. The prosecutor said that ‘while the cryptocurrency industry might be new … this kind of corruption is as old as time’.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Women's experience with money

* Why language is important

* Why Kristine started Untangle Money

* Her journey as a founder

* The vision for Untangle Money

* And how we do encourage more women to invest in the startup ecosystem.

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* Jezebel and the question of women’s anger

* Working mothers in UK twice as likely as fathers to consider quitting job over childcare costs.

* ‘We need more women,’ says only female winner of Millennium engineering prize

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #210 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a recent study by Fidelity Investments (US) which shows that women are leaning into their money and investing more than ever before.

Fidelity added 48% more new women customers in 2023 compared to 2019.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Fidelity study: women are investing more than ever before

A new study by Fidelity Investments shows that women are leaning into their money.

Recent research from Fidelity Investments (US) suggests that women are engaging much more with their money and starting to invest more too.

Fidelity added 48% more new women customers in 2023 compared to 2019. And the good news is that today, an average of 60% of women invest in the stock market.

This is how it breaks down across each generation (ie women who invest):

* 71% of Gen Z

* 63% of millennial

* 55% of Gen X

* 57% of Baby boomers.

Moreover, women are modelling healthy money behaviours: 51% of women who invest in the stock market stay the course. And 68% of women are saving for retirement in 2023, compared to 66% in 2019.

The top 5 financial stressors for women were identified as:

* Thinking I should be doing more with my finances than I am (40%)

* Saving enough to retire (39%)

* Paying off debt (37%)

* Tackling the cost of health care in retirement (29%)

* Knowing how to invest my savings to reach my financial goals (24%)

We know that women have a different life trajectory to men.

The most common factors which impact a woman’s financial journey are caregiving, extended retirement years and higher health costs, which is why women must plan their financial money journey differently.

What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Podcast:

* #74: Women's relationship to money, budgeting vs investing and working with a financial planner with Victoria Ross

* #102: Why is money a taboo topic for women, gender norms, how to 'break the money silence', and what is a financially successful life with Kathleen Burns Kingsbury

News in Brief

Financial news

* China President Xi signals that a sharp slowdown in growth and lingering deflationary risks won’t be tolerated, making a series of rare policy moves to boost sentiment.

* Stocks and bonds suddenly correlate positively w/each other again. Are we back in the 1980s/1990s, and what does that mean for the 60/40 portfolio?

* S&P 500 tumbles 10%+ from July 31 closing high. Now down 14.2% down from Jan 2022 ATH.

* Nasdaq 100 dropped 1.9%, now down 11% from Jul high, so Big Tech now in correction territory.

* Gold topped $2,000 an ounce for the first time since May amidst market chaos and as Israel-Hamas clash raises haven allure. KBW bank index sinks past SVB crisis.

* ECB leaves rates on hold, key rate at 4.5%, depo at 4%, pausing cycle of hikes for first time since start of hiking cycle.

* ECB's Christine Lagarde: Rate cuts weren't discussed, would be totally premature. Markets see the first ECB cut at April 2024 meeting.

* Amazon profits nearly triple as company reports $143.1bn in revenue. Retailer predicts robust margins for rest of year despite rise in interest rates and people returning to bricks-and-mortar stores.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Spot crypto trading volumes surge to levels not seen since March.

* Bitcoin gained over 14% in a week, recently consolidating at around $33,700 after it hit fresh yearly highs at $35,000 but failed to break through that price level.

* Arthur Hayes says BTC is rallying over US military spending, not ETF hype. BitMEX co-founder says investors are offloading bonds for gold and crypto.

* Ethereum's price is stabilising around $1,800, a psychological resistance level for months, amid growing ETF approval buzz.

* VanEck predicts a 10,600% Solana price rally by 2030. The report also delves into a potential scenario where Solana becomes the first blockchain to accommodate applications with over 100 million users.

* Polygon deploys POL token on Ethereum. New POL token will facilitate restaking for multi-chain Polygon ecosystem.

* Vodafone Partners with Chainlink to demonstrate blockchain’s potential in global trade

* No, Hamas isn’t raising millions through crypto. Leading blockchain forensics firms dispel myths surrounding role of crypto in terrorist financing.

Coffee Break? Read This

* How great companies think differently

* Posters charting the feminist fight-in pictures

* Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’: UN calls for more policy focus on women

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #209 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight a short extract from The Purse Podcast interview with Sarah Courtney Dockett, who is Managing Director for Citi Private Bank, Women in Wealth for EMEA.

We talk about women’s growing economic power, how the financial services industry needs to change, female entrepreneurship and women’s relationship with money.

Listen to the full interview here.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Women’s growing economic power and how the financial services industry needs to change

We interviewed Sarah Courtney Dockett, Managing Director at Citi Private Bank, Women in Wealth for EMEA on The Purse Podcast.

We interviewed Sarah Courtney Dockett on The Purse Podcast.

Sarah is Managing Director for Citi Private Bank, Head of Women in Wealth, EMEA. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion.  

Sarah is also a Senior Private Banker in the UK Ultra High Net Worth Team based in London. She is responsible for managing 30 client and Family Office relationships. While they may be resident in the UK, Sarah’s clients span the globe and she has a specialism in dealing with US connected clients. Sarah has 23 years of experience working with Private Clients, 12 of which she has spent with Citi.

In the podcast interview we talk about: why money continues to be a taboo topic (especially in the UK), women’s growing economic power, the financial services industry and what needs to change, investing in female founders and more+

Below is a short extract from the interview.

Jana: “How do you think the financial services industry needs to prepare for this mindset shift, which is obviously from the male customer to the female customer?

We've seen the research, we know the financial services deems the default customer to be male. They've spent very little time thinking about the female customer (although this is changing now, of course). I guess I'm curious…why is it taking such a long time to change?”

Sarah Courtney Dockett’s response:

I think it's taking a long time because…wealth management has been such a male dominated endeavour.

Most of the financial advisors were men. Most of the decision makers where men. The recent study I quoted was that two thirds of affluent households, men are still the key decision makers.

So it's just been because of who are the people in the industry and who are making the decisions. But a woman has the same need and right to access financial resources as men do. I think where the industry needs to wake up is that due to a number of differences, psychological, cultural, societal and so on.

Women will approach problem solving and assess products in different ways. For example, it's a common misconception that women are not risk takers and men are more aggressive with their investment decisions. I have often found my female clients tend to ask more questions than my male clients, but this is merely to ensure they actually understand the proposition in detail before they proceed.

Many women report lower financial self-confidence.

What was quite interesting in the McKinsey study is only one quarter of affluent women say they're comfortable making investment and saving related decisions on their own. And that's 15 percentage points lower than their male counterparts.

Therefore, that's why I think it's important advisors do a better job of helping women meet their goals and build trust in their own financial literacy.

Roughly half of all female financial decision makers say they feel unprepared for their financial goals despite having a financial advisor. So even those women that do have an advisor, only 50% say they feel prepared. So we really do have a long way to go.

And I think advisors and the wealth management community need to bear in mind that women really do have a greater focus on real life goals.

Yes, of course, they'd be delighted to outperform the stock market, but planning for retirement, health, not being a burden on the family in later years. Their children and giving back to society are all really, really important.

I'll quote a study here in the UK from Wealthier Report in 2019. Women told us exactly what they want from their financial services:

more openness, more education, personalised service, access to networks. And more women in finance…

Listen to the full interview here.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Looks like we are back in the pre-2009 days in the bond market. The MOVE volatility index – a kind of VIX Index for bonds – has been at elevated levels for weeks.

* China has cut its holdings in US Treasuries to $805bn, the lowest level since 2009.

* UK 30 year bond yield rises to highest since 1998. And The iShares 20+ year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) now down 51% from ATH.

* Greece has to pay less than the US for 10 year bonds. The markets had already priced in the return of Greece to investment-grade status.

* The Eurozone’s next crisis is already approaching in Italy. 10 year risk spread over German bunds have spiked >200bps. Debt ratio of 140% of GDP is a real challenge for a ‘sub-sovereign’ borrower that no longer prints its own currency.

* The UK’s FTSE 250 index has dropped to a new one-year low.

* UK inflation stays higher than expected after oil price jump. CPI rises 6.7% in September, the same pace as previous month. UK 10 year yields jump by 7bps to 4.58%.

* World's banks earned $1.3tn in 2022, in the best period for global banking overall since at least 2007, acc to McKinsey. Estimate for 2023 profits, at $1.4tn, is even higher.

* Returns this year in the S&P500 have been driven entirely by returns in 7 biggest stocks, and these 7 stocks have become more and more overvalued

* Record US stock ownership: the share of American households that own stock either in mutual funds, retirement accounts, or as individual shares hit a new high in 2022 at 58%.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin extended its weekly gains on Friday, briefly topping $30,000 for the second time this week, as confidence a spot bitcoin ETF will soon be greenlit grew and crypto investors continued weighing uncertainty in the U.S. and abroad.

* Bitcoin’s dominance in the cryptocurrency market has surged to over 49%, its highest level in more than two years, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

* The biggest rallies this week came from two altcoins: Solana (SOL) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Bitcoin Cash blew up 11.6% and currently trades at $239.40, while Solana mushroomed a staggering 25% to hit $26.89

* CoinTelegraph 'tweet hoax' shows spot ETF is the 'only one game' in crypto market.

* Ledger CEO says Recover service expected to go live by end of year

* Vitalik's biggest worries: Crypto stagnating and AI risks, says Ethereum co-Founder.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in this conversation:

* Sarah's most memorable experience with money growing up

* Why is money a taboo topic, especially in the UK?

* Women's growing economic power

* The financial services industry and what needs to change

* Citi’s approach to gender diversity and inclusion

* The rise of female investors

* Female founders and raising capital

* Women's relationship to money

* And how can women engage more with their money?

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* Female entrepreneurs need better support

* I’d love to make some new pals. But why is it so hard?

* 6 tips from a financial planner to make retirement saving easier for single women like me

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #208 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight the new UN Report “The Gender Snapshot 2023” which warns that if current trends continue, over 340m women and girls – an estimated 8% of the world’s female population – will live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.

An additional $360m of investment per year is required to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.

***

And don’t forget you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

UN Report: an additional $360bn investment per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030

According to this new report, the world is failing women and girls.

This year’s edition of the UN Women and UN DESA “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023” launched recently, paints a worrisome picture halfway through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (see the press release here).

The Gender Snapshot 2023 warns that, if current trends continue, over 340m women and girls – an estimated 8% of the world’s female population – will live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.

With a special focus this year on older women, the report finds that older women face higher rates of poverty and violence than older men:

* in 28 of the 116 countries with data, less than 50% of older women have a pension;

* in 12 countries less than 10% had access to a pension.

The Gender Snapshot 2023 underscores the urgent need for concrete efforts to accelerate progress towards gender equality by 2030, revealing that an additional $360bn per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals.

The report also calls for:

* an integrated and holistic approach

* greater collaboration among stakeholders

* sustained funding

* policy actions to address gender disparities and empower women and girls worldwide.

Crucially the report concludes that failure to prioritise gender equality now could jeopardise the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Further facts and figures highlighted in the report include:

* Under a worst-case climate scenario, food insecurity is projected to affect as many as 236m more women and girls, compared to 131m more men and boys, due to climate change.

* No country is within reach of eradicating intimate partner violence and only 27 countries have comprehensive systems to track and make budgetary allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

* The labour and earnings gap remains persistently high. For each dollar men earn in labour income globally, women earn only 51 cents. Only 61.4% of prime working age women are in the labour force, compared to 90 % of prime working age men.

According to Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs of UN DESA:

“Gender equality is not just a goal within the 2030 Agenda. It is the very foundation of a fair society, and a goal upon which all other goals must stand. By breaking down the barriers that have hindered the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of society, we unleash the untapped potential that can drive progress and prosperity for all.”

What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Purse:

* #91: Gender lens investing: an update with Angela Atherton

* #92: Human economics and why it matters, gender bias in economics, the impact on women and why economists need to be more radical with Julie Nelson

* #101: Why the GDP measure is damaging to women and how to move beyond it with Anam Parvez Butt

News in Brief

Financial news

* We are one miscalculation short of a Middle East firestorm and the next world oil crisis, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes: The strange calm on world oil markets is unlikely to survive blockade of Gaza.

* The Israeli economy has shown resilience to a series of shocks in the past, Moody's says.

* Global bond yields rising again after mixed US inflation data. US 10y yields jump 10bps to 4.66%.

* China on brink of deflation again. September inflation slowed to 0% YoY, after edging up 0.1% in August and vs +0.1% expected. PPI dropped 2.5% YoY in September. Consensus was -2.4%.

* US inflation is cooling, but only slowly. From the perspective of the Fed, the figures are probably not worrying enough to trigger another interest rate hike.

* Full force of interest rate hikes is yet to be felt, says Bank of England official. Swati Dhingra says economy has flatlined and millions of mostly young and poorer people could be affected if rates stay high.

* World's banks earned $1.3tn in 2022, in the best period for global banking overall since at least 2007, according to McKinsey. Estimate for 2023 profits, at $1.4tn, is even higher. Spike in global interest rates has broadly been great for banks.

* Another setback for the IPO market: Birkenstock opens 11% below $46 IPO price in trading debut flop.

* Harvard's Claudia Goldin won 2023 Nobel Economics Prize for work on gender differences in the Labour market.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin dropped 3.7% over the last seven days and currently changes hands at $26,928, according to CoinGecko. 

* Ethereum (ETH), had a setback this week of 5.4%. It currently trades for $1,554—its lowest price level since March. 

* Several coins depreciated substantially more including Polygon (MATIC), which fell 8.6% to $0.521054, and Polkadot (DOT), which fell 8% to $3.76.

* On Wednesday, Cathie Woods’ Ark Invest refiled its application for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).

* Bitcoin ETFs could come soon as SEC declines to challenge court loss.

* Ferrari to accept crypto as payment for its cars in the US and will extend the scheme to Europe following requests from its wealthy customers, its marketing and commercial chief told Reuters.

* MetaMask crypto wallet briefly pulled from Apple app store. The app was restored within hours, while other wallet apps remained available.

Coffee Break? Read This

* 6 things people do around the world to slow down

* Are women getting angrier? Maybe they’re just giving themselves permission to show it.

* ‘Eat your broccoli and don’t listen to Andrew Tate’: fighting misogyny is now part of everyday parenting

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #207 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight the new report published by The Alan Turing Institute which states that female-founded AI startups account for under 3% of VC funding in the UK.

A key issue in the industry is the fact that VC firms continue to be dominated by men who prefer to invest in founders ‘who look and sound like them’.

Only 5% of VC firms that participated in funding deals have an equal or majority representation of women at decision maker level.

As women investors tend to invest in women up to three times the rate of men, their role in the startup ecosystem is vital, as they help to diversify investing decisions (which may better serve the world we live in today and in the future).

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

New report (UK): female-founded AI startups account for under 3% of VC funding

A new report by The Alan Turing Institute highlights the underinvestment in female-founded teams in the booming AI industry.

A new report, Rebalancing Innovation: Women, AI and Venture Capital in the UK, paints a concerning picture of gender diversity in AI-focused VC investing.

Female-founded companies account for under 3% of venture capital (VC) funding deals involving AI startups.

And between 2012 and 2022, 80% of total capital invested by VCs in AI was raised by all-male teams. In contrast, all-female teams raised a mere 0.3%.

Here are the key points from the Alan Turing Institute report:

* Female-founded AI startups raised 6 times less capital than their male peers.

* All-female teams raised £1.3m per deal compared with an average of £8.6m raised by all-male teams.

* Most of the teams who make these funding decisions are men.

* Only 5% of VC firms that participated in funding deals have an equal or majority representation of women at decision maker level.

As we know, VC funding plays a crucial role in technological innovation. They determine who and what gets funded, the growth trajectory and shape the culture of the startup.

White, male VCs tend to invest in founders who ‘look and sound like them’ and very often this does not align with female founders who continue to bump up against gender stereotyping and gender bias.

With the explosion of generative AI, there is an urgent need for women have an equal place in the VC ecosystem as investors and entrepreneurs.

Based on research, women investors..

..tend to invest in women entrepreneurs up to three times the rate of men investors. They share in the same lived experience as women entrepreneurs which can reduce the resistance women experience during the fundraising process.

Many reports point to women entrepreneurs needing to contend with outdated stereotypes from mostly male VCs, who continue to mistake ‘gender difference’ with a more risky startup or a lack of competence and experience.

As a result, we continue to see VC investment funding very similar startups, which may no longer be ‘fit for purpose’ in a high-interest world, grappling with fiat currency debasement, climate change and wealth inequality issues.

Moreover, they do very little to mitigate the risk of embedding bias and gender discrimination in AI-based products.

The Alan Turing Institute Report outlines some key recommendations including:

* improving the recruitment and promotion processes at VC firms

* fostering an inclusive culture

* monitoring investment practices

* and diversifying the ecosystem.

According to Dr Erin Young, Research Fellow and Project Co-Lead at The Alan Turing Institute:

“The stark figures in our report show the extent of gender inequality in venture capital funding.

Making sure more female-founded AI companies receive investment is crucial for encouraging responsible AI and fostering innovation.

One can only imagine what technical products and services might have been invented if women had equal participation in the VC and entrepreneurial ecosystem. We hope that our report offers a crucial starting point for these conversations.”

What next? (Re) Listen The Purse Podcast:

* #79: Why women need to build their wealth, investing in female founders, diverse boards and startup investing lessons learnt with Barbara Clarke

* #90: Fintech, building a scale-up, female founders and fundraising with Sabrina Del Prete

* #97: Sie Ventures, investing in female founders and what female investors bring to the table with Triin Linamagi

News in Brief

Financial news

* Who has the losses on the books? Value of global bonds has lost another $1.04tn. This brings the total losses to $3.9tn since mid-July.

* 10 year yields jump 12bps to 4.84%, driven by a jump in real yields. US 10 year real yields now at 2.53%.

* The 5% Bond market means pain is heading everyone’s way. The impact will be felt in everything from shoppers’ pockets to company balance sheets as there’s a lot of debt out there.

* The interest rate on a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage is on course to 8%, highest level in 23 years. By contrast, the yield on 30 year US govt bonds is only at ~5%, which is the highest level since 2007.

* US jobs report looks a bit hot, at least the BLS headline jobs number: US economy added 336k jobs in September, double the Wall Street consensus; but household survey told a different story.

* Buyer’s market fuels fastest fall in UK house prices in 14 years. High mortgage costs result in sixth straight month of sellers being forced to reduce prices, says Halifax.

* UK businesses still ‘reluctant to invest’ over Brexit and interest rates. British Chambers of Commerce survey finds EU trade barriers and high rates have ‘flattened’ investment.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Market leader Bitcoin (BTC) grew a modest 2.7% over the seven days and now changes hands at $27,952. It briefly hit a two-month high on Sunday night when it crossed the $28,000 threshold. 

* Ethereum (ETH) had a comparably harder week and lost 2.1% to trade at $1,636 at the time of writing.

* Only two cryptocurrencies posted any notable price movements, rallying around 15% this week: Avalanche (AVAX), which currently trades for $10.39, and Solana (SOL), which is currently worth $23.31.

* On Monday, the Solana network's total value locked (TVL) hit a new 2023 high of $338.82m.

* Grayscale announced on Monday that it hopes to convert its Ethereum trust into a spot ETF.

* A UBS asset tokenisation trial supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was launched and nine Ethereum Futures ETFs were introduced in the U.S. on Monday.

* Going Infinite: SBF's hairbrained schemes in new Michael Lewis book.

* Both Starbucks and the Museum of Modern Art launched NFTs.

Coffee Break? Read This

* ‘Can’t we have a funny joke?’ Why #girlmath is dividing TikTok

* The past is soaked in sexism. But how will we look back on today?

* Nearly one in three female NHS surgeons have been sexually assaulted, survey suggests

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #205 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we highlight a report by the National Partnership for Women & Families in the US.

The new data analysis confirms a startling result: the gender pay gap costs women $1.6 trillion per year (US). There are a few reasons for this.

But crucially, women must keep tabs on the going rate for their role and actively seek to increase their income every two years.

Don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Kathleen Burns Kingsbury. We talk about why money is a taboo topic, common money mistakes, how gender norms hold women back and what makes for a financially successful life?

Listen to the interview here.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Report: the gender pay gap costs US women $1.6 trillion per year. And how do you negotiate more money…?

New data analysis of census bureau data (US) confirms that women earn 78 cents their male peers do.

According to new analysis of census bureau data in the US by the National Partnership for Women & Families, women continue to make just 78 cents their male peers earn.

The pay gap costs women $1.6 trillion every year.

And the data includes all women who worked, whether full- or part-time, as well as those who may have taken time off during the year for illness or to care for a family member.

The wage gap for women overall is $11,450, which is more than one year of childcare (US). And the impact on women of colour is even greater:

* Latina women workers are paid 52 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men workers are.

* Black women workers are paid 66 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men workers are.

* Asian American women workers are paid 89 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men workers are.

* Compared to white women workers, who are paid 74 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men workers are.

Key factors behind the gender wage gap

According to Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, there are three main reasons for the gender wage gap:

* Caregiving responsibilities:

* Women on average tend to work fewer hours because they assume many of the caregiving responsibilities in their families.

* Occupational segregation:

* Women are concentrated in jobs that pay less and are often shut out from higher-paying jobs through occupational segregation

* Workplace discrimination:

* Women continue to face gender bias and discrimination. Based on research, we know that women do ask for more money, but get turned down more often than men.

So what can women do to keep growing their income?

It is so important to keep track of your market value. Speak to recruiters, male and female peers, research salaries on sites including Linkedin and Glassdoor.

And every two years, if you are not getting a raise, seek out a new employer who is likely to offer you a 20-30%+ increase on your existing salary (+ package).

Don’t forget to leverage a new offer with your existing employer if your preference is to stay on. And you have an actual offer to fall back on, should your employer choose not to match your new offer.

In a salary negotiation, it is important to ‘go first’ and set the negotiation at a high level. Your employer is likely to ‘low ball’ and you need to do the reverse; so start as high as you can stomach.

Keep talking to your female and male peers about their salary (and overall package), so you keep tabs on what the going rate is. Make sure you do speak to your male peers, as they are getting paid more.

What next? (Re) Listen here on The Purse Podcast:

* #50: How women take charge of their money and invest for the long-term with Heather McGregor

* #93: How women can become financially independent with Holly Morphew

* #102: Why is money a taboo topic for women, gender norms, how to 'break the money silence', and what is a financially successful life with Kathleen Burns Kingsbury

News in Brief

Financial news

* Market rout continues with S&P 500 plunges 1.5%. Wall Street’s fear gauge — the Cboe Volatility Index or VIX — jumped 12%, reaching the highest since late May.

* To put things into perspective: Nasdaq 100 now down ~9% from high, largely in the ‘zone’ of recent NDX drawdown episodes over the last 1 year. (HT GS).

* European stock markets hit six-month low. The Stoxx 600 index, which tracks companies across continental Europe and the UK, has fallen by almost 0.5% this morning to 444.7 points, the lowest since the end of March.

* Stress in the financial system is rising: The value of global bonds dropped another $428bn this week as the interest rate world keeps repricing for a higher for longer. In past quarter, bonds lost ~$1.8tn in value and everyone is puzzling over who has the losses on their books.

* Fed more hawkish than anticipated: Holds benchmark rate in 5.25-5.5% target range. 12 Officials see one more hike this year, 7 see on hold. Fed ‘23 median rate forecast stays at 5.6%; ‘24 rises to 5.1%.

* The Great Reset on Wall Street builds as stock traders sober up: financial conditions become the tightest this year. ‘Higher for longer’ most dangerous words for markets. Equal weight S&P 500 flat for the year.

* Bill Ackman says Treasury yields are going higher in a hurry, and that investors should shun US govt debt. His short bet on 30y Treasury bonds paying off in dramatic fashion over the past few weeks.

* The world may not be prepared for a worst-case scenario of Fed rates hitting 7%, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said. Difference between 5% and 7% more painful than 3% to 5% was.

* UK 5-year mortgage rate drops below 6%, first time since July. UK mortgage rates have dropped again, data provider Moneyfacts reports, with the five-year fixed mortgage below 6% for the first time since July.

* Childcare costs ‘soaring by £600-plus a month’ as firms insist on return to office. Survey finds parents under pressure, as second study finds some are leaving workforce because of costs

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin is trading at $27,200+. While that's only 2%+ higher than last week, it's about 60%+ more valuable than at the start of the year.

* Ethereum (ETH), added 4.7% over the last seven days and currently trades for $1,680+, or about 40%+ higher than its New Year's Day price of $1,200.

* Bitcoin Cash (BCH), rallied 11.8% to $234.13, and Chainlink (LINK), surged 14% to $7.72. 

* VanEck’s Ethereum Futures Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) was officially confirmed on Thursday.

* The SEC announced that it was putting four major Bitcoin spot ETFs on the backburner: BlackRock, Bitwise, Invesco Galaxy Digital, and Valkyrie.

* Finally, Stablecoin issuer Circle launched its fiat-backed euro-pegged EURC stablecoin on Stellar, the third blockchain to host the coin after Ethereum and Avalanche.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in this conversation:

* Why is money a taboo topic, especially for women?

* Common money mistakes

* Gender norms and how this holds women back

* Financial services and the wealth management industry

* What is a financially successful life?

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* I have started HRT. So why am I still in an absolute seething rage?

* Modern culture has ripped away girls’ childhood, taking their joy with it

* ‘Eat your broccoli and don’t listen to Andrew Tate’: fighting misogyny is now part of everyday parenting

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #203 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight a short extract from The Purse Podcast interview with Anam Parvez Butt, a Pakistani feminist economist who currently works as the Head of Research at Oxfam GB.

We talk about the GDP (gross domestic product) measure, why it is problematic and how we should move beyond it.

Listen to the full interview here.

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

The GDP measure: why we need to move beyond it

We talk to Anam Parvez Butt on The Purse Podcast about the GDP measure and why we need to move beyond it.

We interviewed Anam Parvez Butt on The Purse Podcast.

Anam is a Pakistani feminist economist who currently works as the Head of Research at Oxfam GB where she works with others to develop and implement Oxfam’s research agendas on care and informal work, fragility and conflict and climate justice.

In particular, the focus areas of her research include gender and macroeconomic policies, the care economy, feminist economic alternatives including metrics that challenge the neoliberal logic of growth, social norms and ending violence against women and girls (eVAWG).

She is deeply committed to integrating intersectional feminist and decolonial approaches in research, learning from and supporting others to do so.

She has co-authored two of Oxfam’s flagship inequality reports including “Time to Care”, the “Care Policy Scorecard” and recently published paper on “Radical Pathways to move beyond GDP”. 

In the podcast interview we talk about: the GDP measure: what is it, why this is problematic for women and for women's wealth, why Oxfam has added its voice to move beyond the GDP, the recently published report called ‘Radical Pathways Beyond GDP’, why and how we need to pursue feminist and de-colonial alternatives urgently, and how do we accelerate the pace of change?

Below is a short extract from the interview:

Jana: “…And moving on to why it's problematic, in addition to the inequality and sustainability issues or environmental challenges that we're faced with today- it is especially problematic for women because 65% of women's work on a weekly basis is essentially unmeasured by the GDP.

And this has significant consequences for 50%-51% of the population globally…”

Anam Parvez Butt’s response:

Yes, absolutely. As you said, it's (GDP: gross domestic product) not even a good measure of what it's supposed to measure, which is economic activity.

And the stat that you quoted, which is a really staggering one, that 65% of women's working hours globally are excluded from GDP.

And this is due to unpaid care, which accounts for 45% of all adults working hours each week globally, not being captured in GDP calculations.

Women carry out three quarters of unpaid care globally, nearly 90 billion hours a week, dedicating on average 4.5hrs a day to it compared to 1.02hrs for men.

As well as the low paid informal work that women, particularly black and brown women do, is a hidden subsidy to the global economy, without which the system as we know it would collapse.

We count 1.3 billion women worldwide who do this work and whose effort, contribution, and value is hardly reflected in GDP's definition of the economy.

And why does this matter?

We know that what isn't seen or counted doesn't only impact what is measured, but critically affects policies around what gets invested in and who benefits and loses around the world.

Public care provisions are sorely lacking, pushing women deeper into time and income poverty, even more so for women who are already experiencing inequalities based on race, ethnicity, income, or age.

Only 44% of countries meet the ILO's minimum standard on maternity leave.

In the U. S., which, tops the world in terms of GDP and spent over 800 billion US dollars on its military in 2021.

There is no federal paid leave policy. In other parts of the world, large deficits and basic kind of physical infrastructure, piped water, electricity, sanitation continue to persist.

In sub Saharan Africa, only 55% of households are within 15 minutes of a water source. And women spend sometimes over four hours a day just collecting water.

And this lack of universal care policy coverage in part rests on this assumption that households and within households, particularly women and girls, will provide these services for free.

And instead of greater investments in these services, we instead see austerity policies, in the form of cuts to public services and employment.

And these are sponsored by the likes of the World Bank and the IMF, and are soon to affect 85% of the world's population and directly harm women who are found facing a triple burden.

Firstly, welfare cuts on which they depend. Then, stepping in to fill the gaps with their unpaid labor. And then thirdly, cuts to jobs and pay in the public sector where women workers predominantly make up the workforce.

Now, 10 years of austerity in the UK has been accompanied by a fall in life expectancy among women in the most deprived areas, largely from minority ethnic and racial groups.

One of the key arguments that we make in the report is that it is no surprise or accident that GDP leads to policies that harm women and girls.

Because it is embedded in an extractive, patriarchal, and neocolonial economic system, which, in the words of eco feminist Vandana Shiva, reduces the society to the economy.

The economy to the market and systematically invisibilises and exploits care work, but also nature.

And its a model and way of thinking that creates the sort of artificial symmetry between the market economy and the non market economy, or what, feminist economists call, the maintenance or sustenance economy, which consists of care activities, ecological processes on which all human life depends.

But the market economy is considered the entire economy.

What is productive, what sits inside the primary focus of economic thought and policymaking, whereas the maintenance economy, is considered unproductive, valueless and lying outside of this focus.

And I also wanted to mention that, apart from unpaid care, GDP doesn't tell us anything directly about social and ecological wellbeing at large; our health, our happiness, life satisfaction.

It ignores the value of peace and clean air, in fact, oil spills through cleanup efforts can actually increase GDP whilst not polluting the ocean counts for nothing.

It doesn't distinguish how growth is happening and who it is harming or benefiting. So a dollar spent on coal is valued the same as a dollar spent on public health.

And the environmental cost of burning that coal is not even factored in.

It also takes no account of inequality. A country can have high GDP growth, yet all the benefits accrue to the richest people.

One of the examples we give is of Equatorial Guinea, for instance, which has one of the highest figures for GDP per capita on the African continent, at one point even higher than Spain, I think.

But despite this, primary school enrollment rates remain lower, infant mortality remains higher than the sub-Saharan African average.

And analysis by scholars in the country has shown that this is largely a result of widening inequalities and the capture of GDP by wealthy elites, something that does not feature in, in GDP accounts.

So in summary, it really does a very, very poor job of really measuring what matters…

Listen here to the full interview.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Beyond AI euphoria is a worrying stock signal on US growth. Stocks sniffing out something data isn’t showing: Russell 2000 has fallen behind an index of 1000 largest-cap stocks for 2nd month in a row, on track for its second-worst annual underperformance since 1998.

* A bank liquidity indicator sounds the alarm. Emergency loans from the Fed's #BTFP facility rose to $108bn this week – a new high – as long-term US government bond yields keep rising.

* US Fed quantitive tightening (QT) continues with balance sheet shrank by another $2.5bn to $8,098.8bn, lowest since July 2021. Fed's total assets now equal to 30.2% of US's GDP vs ECB's 51.5%, SNB's 111.5% & BoJ's 126.8%.

* The US inflation for August ran a bit hot, with headline CPI coming in at +3.7% YoY above Street’s +3.6% forecast) while the Core CPI was inline on a year-on-year basis (+4.3%, down from +4.7% in Jul) but hot on a MoM view (+0.278% vs. the Street +0.2%).

* European Central Bank (ECB) raises rates by 25bps, depo rate to fresh all-time high of 4%.

* EU cut its outlook for Eurozone economy, predicting it will be dragged down this year by a contraction in Germany.

* UK mortgage war ‘under way’ as lender offers 4.99% fixed rate. Brokers say borrower confidence likely to lift after the first below 5% deal surfaces since June with more offers likely soon.

* UK economy shrinks by 0.5% in July amid wet weather and strikes. Manufacturing, services and construction sectors contract for first time since summer of 2022.

* Arm Holdings jumps 25% from IPO price in trading debut. Hotly-anticipated IPO was 12-times oversubscribed w/the top 10 clients taking half of the 95.5 million ADRs at $51 each, the top of a marketed range.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin at $26.4k set for weekly gain, but rallies might continue to be sold. The world's largest crypto has bounced from a 3-month low below $25,000 hit on Monday.

* Ethereum (ETH) remains more or less at the same price it was seven days ago at $1,636. 

* Two tokens rallied: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) grew 11.5% to $213.79, while Toncoin (TON) blew up 23% to trade at $2.20. 

* On Monday, Sony subsidiary Sony Network Communications announced it was developing a blockchain network in collaboration with crypto tech firm Startale Labs.

* American payments giant PayPal launched crypto to USD off-ramps on Tuesday. The move came after PayPal launched a crypto On Ramp integration last month, enabling direct crypto purchases to MetaMask and Ledger users.

* On Wednesday, Taurus–a Swiss crypto fintech firm—announced an agreement with Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank will also use Taurus’ infrastructure to offer custody and tokenisation services for its customers

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in this conversation:

* The GDP measure: what is it?

* Why this is problematic for women and for women's wealth

* Why Oxfam has added its voice to move beyond the GDP

* The recently published report called Radical Pathways Beyond GDP

* Why and how we need to pursue feminist and decolonial alternatives urgently

* And how do we accelerate the pace of change?

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* I feel like I’ve wasted by 20s, what is holding me back?

* Spanish court imposes restraining order on Rubiales after kiss allegations

* Women in Afghanistan are fighting an unequal war. We need your support

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #202 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on UK-based bladder health startup founded by Peony Li which has raised $4.24m from female and impact investors.

Peony founded this startup based on her personal experience of chronic bladder infections from a young age-which were frequently ignored by the healthcare system.

We know that women’s health suffers from chronic underfunding and a lack of research.

And here again we see a female founder addressing an underserved but very large market and raising funding from female and impact focused investors.

***

And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Jude: female founded startup raises $4.24m from female and impact investors

The UK-based bladder health startup will expand its offering and launch in the US.

Jude, a London startup focused on bladder health has raised $4.24m in seed funding to support US expansion plans. And to further develop the company’s range of services aimed at promoting healthy aging and enhanced bladder health.

The startup was founded in 2022 by Peony Li, the former Head of Investments at Founders Factory and Head of Operations at Daye.

Peony founded this startup based on her personal experience of chronic bladder infections from a young age-which were frequently ignored by the healthcare system.

The problem

2.3 billion people are affected by bladder-related issues. And the bladder health market surpasses that of diabetes, as well as the combined market of menopause, erectile malfunction and endometriosis.

And according to Peony:

"We know women’s health suffers from chronic underfunding and a lack of research, there’s little medication and not enough training for healthcare professionals in bladder health specifically. We want to make the entire journey - from symptom to solution - better for people with poor bladder health…”

Based on data, we know that 80%+ of health VCs have never invested in women’s health.

The solution and expansion

Jude has set out to improve the entire clinical pathway where there are limited solutions available for patients.

Jude will launch in the US at the beginning of 2024, through direct-to-consumer (retail). And the startup will expand its offering to launch symptom tracking, prescriptions and advance research into the underserved area of nutrition and urinary health.

The startup has served 16,000 patients to date. And introduced innovative products, including a new natural treatment for lower urinary tract issues that reduces incontinence, being prescribed by doctors to patients across Europe.

Jude’s focus is on offering a holistic approach to treatment, through personalised consultations and delivered directly to the patient’s home, via a digital subscription.

Female and impact investors

The seed round was led by Eka VC and Joyance, with June Angelides at Samos VC and Dr. Fiona Pathiraja of Crista Galli Ventures continuing their support. Angel syndicate, Sie Ventures has also invested in the startup.

Eka VC describe themselves as working“with founders building category-defining technology companies that positively shape the world, making it more sustainable, healthy and inclusive”.

And Joyance “is investing in the emerging science of happiness: Joyance Partners, (along with sister fund Social Starts), is the first venture fund focused on individual health experience, not process”.

Jude has also received a grant from Innovate UK, and existing backers include Access VC, Reckitt’s innovation fund, Echo Pharmacy founder Stephen Bourke, and David Rowan, founder at Voyagers and founding editor-in-chief of Wired UK.

What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Podcast:

* #90: Fintech, building a scale-up, female founders and fundraising with Sabrina Del Prete

* #97: Sie Ventures, investing in female founders and what female investors bring to the table with Triin Linamagi

* #99: Female angel investors, UK vs US startup culture, investing for impact and levelling the playing field for female founders with Maya Ghosn

News in Brief

Financial news

* Brent Oil hits $90/bbl for 1st time since November as Saudi Arabia extended its unilateral oil production cut by another three months.

* Mind the gap: The valuation of S&P 500 has become cheaper but attractiveness vs interest rates has decreased massively as US 10 year real yields now at almost 2%. (Chart via Goldman)

* The value of global bonds drop another $273bn this week as the interest rate world is just repricing for higher real yields given high level of government debt in the US.

* US jobs market continues to slow. Unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% as household survey showed the number of unemployed people up 514k.

* Eurozone inflation remained stuck at 5.3% in August, higher than the 5.1% that economists expected.

* UK house prices tumble 4.6% in year to August. The price of a typical UK home dropped to £279,569, down by around £14,000 over the last year, back to the level seen in early 2022.

* Bank of England governor expects ‘quite marked’ fall in UK inflation. Pound falls as Andrew Bailey’s comments call into question need for further interest rate rise.

* The KBW Bank Index fell by 8.8% in August, the weakest bank in the index is Citi w/-13.4%.

* Billionaire Bernard Arnault has bought €215mn of LVMH shares since the luxury firm's disappointing earnings in late July contributed to a drop in the stock price.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin has jumped back above the $26,000 mark, after languishing in $25,000 territory for over one week.

* Ethereum was up 0.8% and is trading at approximately $1,630.

* Payments giant Visa has said it will ramp up its use of Circle's USDC stablecoin on its network, potentially opening the door to future bitcoin and crypto expansion.

* G20 moves forward with international crypto framework. The upcoming framework will affect users in several countries by automatically exchanging information about crypto transactions between jurisdictions on an annual basis.

* The London Stock Exchange Group announced that it is using blockchain technology to build an exchange offering tokenized versions of traditional financial assets.

Coffee Break? Read This

* 15 rules for negotiating a job offer

* ‘It’s going to cost billions’: UK councils face huge bills over equal pay claims

* ‘We all identify with Jenni’: Spanish women share their shocking stories of sexism

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2023 & All Rights Reserved

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #201 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we cover the gender pension gap and a recent report which forecasts that women’s weekly income will be half of their male peers, by 2045.

The gender pension gap in private pensions is currently estimated at 35%, according to the Department of Work and Pensions.

It’s never been more critical for women to engage and take ownership of their financial future.

And The Purse Podcast is celebrating 100 episodes since launch!

Thank you to all of my listeners and for being on this journey with me. To celebrate, I decided to record an audio journal so I could share my journey with you and to talk about what led me to founding the The Purse and The Purse Podcast. Please enjoy!

Listen to the podcast here.

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And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Gender pension gap: women to take home half of weekly income by 2045 (compared to men)

A report forecasts that the gender pension gap will remain at 35%+ for 20 years.

According to a report, women’s workplace pensions are forecast to narrow only slightly to men’s in the next 20 years, as per The Financial Times.

And whilst an improvement is expected in women’s state pensions, Lane Clarke & Peacock has projected that women will take home a weekly income of half the size of their male peers by 2045 due to the shortfall in private pensions.

The gender pension gap in private pensions is currently estimated at 35%, according to the Department of Work and Pensions.

As we know, this can be largely attributed to:

* the gender pay gap

* women have less disposable income to save and invest

* women interrupting their career to start a family

* rejoining the workplace on a part-time basis or on a reduced full-time salary

* (later) shouldering elderly care

* and many leaving the workforce early.

Many women leave the workplace in their 50s because of the menopause. Ironically, this is often at the peak of their career when, in theory, women should be maximising pension contributions.

For this reason, many women are at risk of losing out to a comfortable retirement. And in some cases, without the necessary support, they may fall into poverty.

The data shows that older women who might be widowed or unattached, perhaps have been a single parent, have higher poverty rates than men.

Not only do women form three-quarters of those excluded from automatic enrolment because they earn below £10,000 per year, but when a marriage breaks down, women do not usually receive a percentage of their partners’ pensions.

Although it depends on how a divorce is negotiated, private pensions are often ‘forgotten’ by lawyers, and many do not properly evaluate the size of a pension pot.

According to Office for National Statistics, pensions are often the biggest marital asset after property, making up 42% of household wealth.

Research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said more support was needed for women on maternity leave, including measures to boost child benefits to support parents. Much of the pension difference still hinges on issues in the labour market. 

However, whilst childcare affordability is an issue in the UK, so is the low take up by fathers of shared parental leave. This was estimated at only 2-8% in 2019.

Societal and gender norms continue to influence who takes up the majority of childcare, which affects women’s financial health in the long-term.

It’s never been more critical for women to engage and take ownership of their financial future.

What next? (Re) read these articles on The Purse:

* Working women and the gender pension gap

* Report: UK women are priced out of work by the cost of childcare (plus the low take up of shared parental leave by fathers)

* The 'feminization of poverty': 90% of single parents who live in poverty are women

News in Brief

Financial news

* China has cut its holdings in US Treasuries to $835bn, lowest level since 2010.

* The valuation of S&P 500 has become cheaper but attractiveness vs interest rates has decreased massively as US 10 year real yields now at almost 2%.

* Oil prices have risen to the highest level since November. If you're looking for an explanation as to why US bond yields suddenly rose again on Friday, here's one.

* Fed terminal rate nudged higher following Powell's Jackson Hole speech. Markets are now pricing in another 15bps of rate hikes.

* US jobs market continues to slow. Unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% as household survey showed the number of unemployed people up 514k.

* Eurozone inflation remained stuck at 5.3% in August, higher than the 5.1% that economists expected.

* Eurozone M2 money supply shrinks at an increased rate. M2 money supply shrank 1.4% in July, most in history, in a promising sign for inflation.

* UK economy recovered to pre-pandemic level in 2021 - earlier than thought. The ONS has revised up GDP growth in 2021 by 0.9 percentage points to an 8.5% increase.

* The KBW Bank Index fell by 8.8% in August, the weakest bank in the index is Citi w/-13.4%.

* Growth stocks are missing in Europe: that's why European indices are trading like value stocks.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs

* Bitcoin jumps as court clears way for Bitcoin ETF: Grayscale Investments could soon convert its Bitcoin Trust product into an ETF. However BTC has since dropped sue to SEC’s delay in approving the spot BTC ETF. (Currently trading ay $25,900+)

* Ether’s rebound off the strong support at $1,626 fizzled out at $1,745 on Aug. 29. This indicates that bears remain active at higher levels.

* SEC delays spot Bitcoin ETF decision for all applicants including BlackRock, Fidelity, until October.

* In an Aug. 30 post on X (formerly Twitter), Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas bumped up the approval possibility of a spot Bitcoin ETF from 65% to 75%.

* Vitalik sells MakerDAO stake after CEO Christensen suggests Solana-based blockchain.

* Cathie Wood bullish on Bitcoin and AI convergence. The ARK Invest CEO shares her views on the intersection of Bitcoin and artificial intelligence, highlighting its economic implications.

The Purse Podcast

To celebrate 100 podcasts, Jana Hlistova talks about:

* Her background

* Women's economic empowerment

* Why start The Purse and The Purse Podcast

* Fundraising as a female founder

* Women, money & investing

* Startup failure

* The financial services industry

* Women investors

* Money lessons learnt

Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+

Coffee Break? Read This

* The connection between exercise and high performance

* 6 Habits That Hurt Your Career — and How to Overcome Them

* Will you marry me – or will you embarrass me? The unstoppable rise of the public marriage proposal

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka.

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