Es), a research firm's report said on Friday. A survey of more than 3,000 companies by Kadence Asia-Pacific found that half of all finance heads are females. SMEs in Thailand and Taiwan have a particularly high proportion of women financial decision makers at nearly 80 percent, according to survey results published in The Business Times.
Slightly more than six in 10 of Singapore SMEs have woman handling their money matters.
In contrast, India stood out for its male-dominated market where 5 percent of women hold the purse strings at SMEs. For the purpose of the survey, SMEs were defined as non-listed companies with fewer than 200 staff.
"As a result (of the survey), financial institutions will need to align their business activity to reflect gender changes in the Asia-Pacific workforce," Kadence managing director Piers Lee was quoted as saying.
The involvement of women in Thailand in financial decision-making roles is driven by a market characterized by entrepreneurship among young females, the report said. Women are common across all sectors in financial decision-making roles.
The market is also dominated in Taiwan by female chief financial officers (CFOs) across a range of companies and sectors.
Many of the larger SMEs in Singapore and Malaysia are predominantly Chinese family-run businesses, the survey found.
In this context, women in the family are generally perceived as being more meticulous and better suited to handling the accounts, it added. Seventy percent of large SMEs in Malaysia have female CFOs.
