In this episode, AI and Deepfake Cartographer Henry Ajder joins us to unpack what rapid advances in AI mean for trust, safety, and financial inclusion. As tools like deepfakes and voice cloning become more sophisticated, synthetic identity fraud and impersonation scams are becoming easier to scale and harder to detect. These risks are especially significant for people entering the financial system for the first time. When trust breaks early, adoption slows, and progress toward financial inclusion can reverse.

We also explore how technology-enabled gender-based harm, including harassment and impersonation, is shaping how women participate online, and why the pace of innovation is outstripping the pace of consumer protection.

At the same time, we discuss how AI presents real opportunity. Used responsibly, it can help financial institutions better understand customers and design services that reflect women’s financial lives. The question now is whether safeguards, accountability, and transparency will evolve quickly enough to ensure AI strengthens trust and helps finance work better for women.

Tokenized payments promise instant settlement, near-zero transaction costs, and fewer intermediaries—but can they actually work for low-income women and women-led MSMEs operating on thin margins and informal cash flows?

In this episode, we’re joined by Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer at Circle, to unpack the real potential—and real constraints—of stablecoins and tokenized cash.

We explore whether faster, cheaper money movement can meaningfully improve liquidity, reduce remittance and transfer fees, and increase economic certainty for women entrepreneurs—or whether structural, regulatory, and access barriers still stand in the way.

This conversation cuts through the hype to ask a sharper question: What would it take for tokenized money to expand women’s economic opportunity at scale?

In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we speak with Monika Shukla, Co-Founder & CEO of Humble Bee, on how inclusive business models can unlock economic opportunity for women at the margins.

Monika unpacks how she is transforming India’s beekeeping sector by integrating women—particularly landless and forest-fringe dwellers—pairing financial access with skills, market linkages, and ownership. With a bold goal of building one million sustainable livelihoods by 2028, this conversation offers practical insights on how to design, fund, and scale models that move beyond reach to real economic opportunity—where women are not just customers, but producers, earners, and drivers of growth.

Episode 30 is a celebration. Women’s World Banking just crossed our most audacious milestone yet! Take a step back with us to reflect on the stories, ideas, and breakthroughs that shaped our past episodes. Through curated moments from leaders across the globe, we revisit the lessons that have pushed the sector forward—from reshaping consumer protection to unlocking capital for women’s businesses to building climate resilience.

We then look ahead to 2026 and what topics are on the horizon for The Making Finance Work for Women Podcast and what real-world solutions are top-of-mind for us to continue building an inclusive financial system for women and men everywhere.

The price of violence is economic. The solution can be, too. Behind many closed doors, violence is an everyday reality—especially for women in low-income countries. For millions, safety, autonomy, and economic participation are undermined long before they ever reach a bank branch or mobile wallet screen.

In this Vault Release, we revisit a powerful conversation with Dr. Anita Kemi DaSilva-Ibru, Founder of the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), whose work in Nigeria sits at the forefront of addressing gender-based violence with a survivor-centered lens.

One in three women globally experience physical or sexual violence, most often from an intimate partner. In low-income countries, that number surges to nearly 50%.

This episode explores a side of financial inclusion that is often invisible:

• the financial scars of abuse

• the role of economic violence—present in 99% of intimate partner violence cases

• and how access to financial tools can be a lifeline to safety

As the financial inclusion community works to build systems that genuinely serve women, the realities of violence cannot be ignored. This conversation reminds us that finance is not only a tool for prosperity—it can be a catalyst for safety, dignity, and long-term resilience.

A vital listen for anyone shaping financial systems, gender policy, or women’s economic empowerment.

As aid retreats and climate impacts increase, can investors step in where governments can’t? The battleground for influence just may be shifting from parliaments to portfolios. In this conversation with the Manager Partner of Women’s World Banking Asset Management Emerging Market Funds, we explore how gender-lens investing is being defined as both a moral and market imperative — and what it really takes to turn capital into climate resilience.

What does the rise of instant payments, CBDCs, and buy-now-pay-later innovations mean for global financial systems—and for the women too often left at the edges of them? In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we speak with David Marsh, Chairman and Co-Founder of OMFIF, whose upcoming book Can Europe Survive? examines the economic crossroads facing a fragmented continent and world. We explore how monetary innovation is reshaping policy, power, and participation, and ask what it will take to ensure the new financial infrastructure works for everyone—not just the privileged few. From central banks to street vendors, the ripple effects of change are real—and they’re just getting started.

Crypto is redefining value. But what does this mean for people too often left behind by traditional finance—especially women? In this episode of Making Finance Work for Women, we sit down with Rebecca Carvatt, Partner at EY Financial Services Consulting. With nearly two decades of experience scaling digital banks and launching financial products globally, Rebecca offers an unflinching look at how crypto innovation can drive—or derail—inclusive growth.

We dive into the opportunities and risks of emerging crypto tech by asking the hard questions: Who stands to gain? Who’s being overlooked? And how can we ensure crypto becomes a tool for empowerment, not exclusion?

Whether you're a policymaker, fintech builder, or advocate for inclusive finance, this conversation at the intersection of technology and trust is not to be missed.