Women Empowerment through Microcredit: The Role of HSBC Bank (UK) in Foreign Market

Abstract

Women empowerment is one of the leading issues of concern and interest of practitioners and researchers. Many institutions specifically those which are well established and are looking for opportunities of growth see the microcredit market in the developing countries as a potential market to target for profit through development.

The current study elaborates the role of HSBC (UK) in Indian market of microcredit. HSBC (UK) works in collaboration with Mann Deshi Mahila Bank in India to target women empowerment through microcredit. The study analyzed the role of microcredit in empowering women in order to see whether developed institutions (mostly in developed countries such as UK, USA etc.) have the potential to aim for microcredit market in developing countries.

The results of the study are generated by analyzing the primary data collected from the women microcredit clients of Mann Deshi Mahila Bank (India). The results of the percentage and regression analysis done on the primary data reveal that the women who use microcredit reach a better level of empowerment and many empowerment signs become evident in them after the use of microcredit. Therefore, HSBC (UK) is successfully targeting women empowerment through provision of microcredit in India while working in collaboration with Mann Deshi Mahila Bank (India).

Key words: women empowerment, microcredit, developing, foreign market, influence