The Philippines has the highest proportion of female investors worldwide, with Filipinas also accounting for half of the total stock market accounts in the local bourse.
BrokerChooser, a Hungary-based broker comparison service, analyzed its internal data and reported Wednesday that female investors accounted for 44% of all its platform’s users from the Philippines, the highest share among the 123 countries in the list. Its 56% male and 44% female ratio is also higher than the 76%–24% global ratio favoring male investors.
Other countries cited by BrokerChooser as having high levels of female investors included the Caribbean islands Barbados (39%) and Trinidad and Tobago (38%), as well as the Pacific Island state Papua New Guinea (38%).
The 2021 findings reflect earlier data from eToro, a multi-asset investment platform, that showed the Philippines had the highest percentage of female traders in the said platform’s global list.
BusinessWorld reported in March 2020 that over 26% of eToro’s Asian investors were Filipinas, as compared to 18.09% of female investors in Taiwan, and 17.15% in Hong Kong.
Asian women were also better represented than their European counterparts, who made up 11.18% of eToro’s registered users.
Meanwhile, in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the percentage of female investors inched up to 49.20% in 2020 from 48.40% in 2018. The percentage of online female investors has likewise hovered at the 50.60% mark for the same time period.
PSE president and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Monzon noted in an Oct. 6 message the growing number of retail investors in the local stock market, a majority of whom are neophytes.
“All the financial literacy programs we do in PSE is our contribution to help make financial inclusion a reality,” he said. “We want more Filipinos to reap the rewards of their hard work through investing.”
The Philippines is ranked 17th out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum. — Patricia B. Mirasol
