Around 47% of female Indian earners in metros take independent financial decisions: Survey

Ninety-eight percent of salaried and self-employed Indian women actively participate in long-term family decision-making, according to a report launched on Monday by DBS Bank India, in partnership with CRISIL.

It is the first of three reports, as part of a comprehensive study entitled 'Women and Finance' and reveals the financial preferences of both salaried and self-employed women, across various life stages.

The findings also revealed that about 47% of women make independent financial decisions, a reflection of their growing financial autonomy.

Age and affluence play a pivotal role in shaping these decisions. Women over 45 years old, with their wealth of experience, emerge as the leaders, with 65% making independent financial choices compared to 41% of those aged 25-35 years.

The report also provides a glimpse into the growing empowerment of earning, metropolitan women and a woman’s primary long-term financial priority evolves with age.

Buying/upgrading a home is priority number one for those between 25-35 years, while it evolves to children’s education for those in the 35-45 year category and to medical care for those above 45 years of age. Expectedly, retirement planning is seen entering the consideration set for the first time in the 35–45-year age cohort.

Saving, borrowing and investment behaviour

According to the survey, women earners in the metros tend to be risk-averse with 51% of their investments parked in fixed deposits (FD) and savings accounts, followed by 16% in gold, 15% in mutual funds, 10% in real estate and just 7% in stocks.

This tracks with behaviours from DBS Bank India’s own customer insights where 10% of female customers have an active fixed deposit, while just 5% of male customers have opened an FD.

The presence of dependents also plays an important role in investment behaviour. About 43% of married women with dependents allocate 10-29% of their income to investing, while in contrast, a quarter of married women without dependents choose to invest over half of their income.

Regional variations lend greater depth to the insights. Hyderabad and Mumbai lead the way in credit card usage, with 96% of women in Mumbai relying on credit cards, while only 63% of women in Kolkata use them. The report revealed that half of the salaried women stated that they have never taken a loan. Among those who have borrowed, the majority opted for a home loan.

The study also studied women’s usage of different banking and payment channels. About 33% of those in the 25-35 age bracket prefer to use UPI for online shopping, while only 22% above 45 years use UPI.

The report showed that UPI stands out as the preferred choice for urban women for a variety of payment needs: money transfers (38%), utility bills (34%) and ecommerce purchases (29%), signalling decreasing dependency on cash. Although regional nuances were stark in some cases with only 2% of women in Delhi opting for cash payments, while 43% of women from Kolkata favoured this option.

Prashant Joshi, Managing Director and Head of Consumer Banking Group, DBS Bank India, said: “Ownership of financial decision making, diverse investment and borrowing choices and growing adoption of digital channels are all evidence that the modern Indian woman is not just a participant, but a planner of her journey.” 

Over 800 women across 10 cities in India participated in the survey that sought to study a wide range of behaviours, including their involvement in financial decision-making, goal setting, saving and investing patterns, adoption of digital tools as well as their preferences for different banking products.

The survey findings pointed to factors like age, income, marital status, presence of dependents and home location as major influencers of financial behaviour of women.