The numbers of gender inequality

International Women's Day

Financial education, empowering women and reducing the gender gap

Lower financial skills and less access to banking facilities: only 58% of women in Italy have a current account in their own name

by Nicoletta Labarile

8 March 2026

7' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Only six out of ten have a current account
The gender gap remains open in Europe
ECB initiatives
Education closes gender gap
The role of Abi and the banks
Economic violence

7' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Having a bank account, consciously managing one's money and making informed decisions about it: economic independence is a fundamental condition for women's freedom and emancipation. But, as the Edufin Index 2025 records, women score on average 5 points lower than men in financial skills - 54 versus 59 - while the widest gender gap is in Sardinia. Weighing on the gap are the gender stereotypes according to which women are less capable of owning and managing financial resources: false beliefs that hinder girls and young women as early as the first years of school, during which they begin to have less confidence in their mathematical and financial abilities.

According to the Bank of Italy's 'Financial Literacy and Digital Finance Skills of Young People' survey (2023), conducted among some 5,400 Italians aged between 18 and 34, about 40% of young people never talk about money in the family and a similar proportion feel uncomfortable discussing finance. The absence of dialogue about money and resource management limits informal learning opportunities and helps explain why fragilities are already emerging among students. OECD-Pisa data confirm fragile economic skills among Italian adolescents, who score 484 points in financial literacy compared to 498 for the OECD average. The discrepancy does not start at university. Nor in the early years of their careers. It starts much earlier: in self-perceptions, in the models available, in the distribution of roles in educational and family activities.

Only six out of ten have a current account

The weight of cultural stereotypes is not only reflected in skills, but also in concrete access to financial instruments. In Italia it was only in 1975, with the reform of family law, that women were granted full legal autonomy in the management of their assets and economic relations. In France, married women have been able to open an account without their husband's authorisation since 1965, while in the United States banks were prohibited from discriminating against women in access to credit and credit cards by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974.

The path towards female economic autonomy is relatively recent and remains fragile in terms of banking relationships. According to data from the World Bank Gender Data Portal (2024), 79.8% of women in Italia have an account with a financial institution, compared to 92.6% of men, with a gap of over 12 percentage points in access to banking services. This gap is much wider than the average for Europe and Central Asia, where the gap is around 4.6 points.

This figure, however, includes both personal accounts and accounts shared with partners or family members and therefore does not fully capture the degree of autonomy in managing money. A more detailed picture emerges from research on women's financial inclusion in Italia. According to a survey by the Global Thinking Foundation, in Italia only 58% of women have a current account in their personal name, while 12.9% have only an account shared with their partner or other family members and 4.8% have no current account at all.

This means that a significant proportion of women continue to relate to the financial system through instruments shared or mediated by other family members: the same survey shows that around 31% of Italian women declare that they are financially dependent on their partner or another family member, a sign of a still partial economic autonomy.

The consequence is that access to financial services - from savings to investments to credit - may be more limited or less direct. In this way cultural stereotypes and economic inequalities end up mutually reinforcing: when the relationship with money is more often through shared accounts or family decisions, women's financial independence remains more fragile.

The gender gap remains open in Europe

"Financial education guides choices throughout life. And, at the moment, too many women make these choices without the necessary knowledge and skills,' stressed the President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde. 'Closing this gap is important because it allows women to have full control over their financial lives'. The phenomenon does not only concern Italia. In Europe, only a minority of the population has a high level of financial literacy and the gender gap remains significant: one in five Europeans has a high level of financial literacy. But only 15% of women fall into this category, compared to 27% of men. A gap that is also reflected in economic conditions throughout life, with lower average wages and a higher risk of poverty in old age.

The ECB's initiatives

To tackle this inequality, the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Eurosystem have launched a series of coordinated initiatives: the aim is to strengthen financial education and reduce the gender gap. The shared commitments - presented at an event in Frankfurt on 2 March on the occasion of International Women's Day - include the creation of a European network of institutions committed to promoting financial literacy, the development of comparable data across countries and targeted educational programmes at key moments in life, from school education to retirement planning. Alongside these initiatives, the Eurosystem has also launched a new joint project, the EuroSteps Walking Challenge, designed to integrate financial learning into everyday life. The challenge combines physical activity - measured by the number of steps taken each day - with short educational content on the conscious use of money, accessible directly from smartphones while walking.

Registration opened on 2 March. The counter challenge will start on 1 April and will last four weeks. Participants will receive two or three weekly notifications in their own language with financial education pills and links to reliable national programmes and resources. An initiative designed to make learning financial skills more accessible and integrated into everyday life in all euro area countries.

Training closes gender gap

Targeted training can concretely reduce the financial skills gap. According to an analysis by the Bank of Italy on the 'Women Count' programme, participants improved their financial knowledge by around 30% compared to a control group that had not undergone training. International evidence also confirms the effectiveness of these interventions: the OECD emphasises that structured financial education programmes, especially if introduced at school age, strengthen economic planning skills and confidence in one's financial decisions over the long term. It is therefore not the talent that is lacking, but the tools: investing in financial education means giving women more opportunities for autonomy and economic participation.

The role of ABI and the banks

In this context, the banking sector also plays a central role in disseminating financial culture and promoting economic independence. With the initiative "Talent has no gender. Down with stereotypes", Abi aims to raise awareness of the issues of gender equality and the fight against stereotypes through the enhancement of financial skills as a tool to support social inclusion and equal opportunities. "Investing in the training and growth of skills and abilities is a lever of resilience to change, inclusion, and equal opportunities," says Marco Elio Rottigni, Director General of Abi, who emphasises: "If, as Istat states, in 2024 the gender gap in the employment rate in Italia remains stable at 19 percentage points, to decrease significantly as educational qualifications increase, falling to 7.2 percentage points for university graduates, then training and skills growth can improve financial well-being and mitigate the gap between women and men".

As part of Un Women's global campaign 'Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL women and girls", Abi is bringing together awareness-raising activities, testimonials and educational projects aimed above all at young people: "Understanding the new needs, accompanying changes and offering concrete and sustainable solutions, is a daily responsibility and commitment for the banking sector, also through financial education and inclusion programmes", emphasises Gianni Franco Papa, Chairman of the Abi technical-strategic committee "Demographic evolution and banking services" and Managing Director of Bper Banca, adding: "Valuing respect and equal opportunities, starting with the younger generations, means contributing to forming a citizenship that is increasingly aware, active and capable of looking to the future".

The new generations are at the centre of one of the campaign's main initiatives: the educational event "Abbasso gli Stereotipi", organised together with the Foundation for Financial and Savings Education (FEduF), is aimed precisely at primary and middle school students and is a participatory format in which children dialogue directly with protagonists from the banking, economic and educational world. The aim is to show, through testimonials and concrete examples, how knowledge of money, savings and financial planning can become a tool for autonomy, awareness and equal opportunities from childhood onwards: "Financial education is the decisive tool for breaking down stereotypes and providing women with the freedom to choose their own future," explains Giovanna Boggio Robutti, director general of FEduF - Bridging the skills gap is not only an educational challenge, but an act of prevention against economic violence and a necessary step towards a more equal society.

Economic Violence

Intervening on financial training for women also means working on the prevention of economic violence, a form of abuse that is often invisible but widespread: "Promoting equal opportunities in all spheres - educational, social, economic - means building pathways so that no girl is limited by stereotypes, discrimination, lack of resources, and helping to prevent gender-based violence phenomena, including economic violence, which is as dramatic as it is all too often unrecognised" emphasises Ilaria Dalla Riva, chairwoman of Casl (Trade Union and Labour Affairs Committee) of Abi. According to the latest ISTAT (Italian Statistics Institute) survey on violence against women (2025), 6.6% of women in Italia have suffered forms of economic violence from a current or past partner during their lifetime. These are behaviours that limit or control a partner's financial autonomy - such as preventing her from working, denying access to money or excluding her from family economic decisions - and find fertile ground precisely in situations of economic dependence.

The more economically dependent a woman is on her partner, the more difficult it becomes to escape situations of control or abuse. Among the women who do not consider themselves economically independent, 24.3% do not participate in family economic decisions and 42.4% report experiencing forms of economic violence, confirming the close link between financial autonomy and the possibility of escaping controlling dynamics. Among the victims of economic violence, more than half (53.6%) do not have a personal income and live thanks to the support of cohabiting relatives: a condition that accentuates dependence and makes it more difficult to escape from abusive situations. Therefore, strengthening financial education does not only mean improving money management. But offering women concrete tools for autonomy, awareness and freedom.