Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo launches WE Finance Code and signs business data-sharing agreement to support women entrepreneurs’ access to finance

The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo launched the WE Finance Code, an initiative to support women entrepreneurs’ access to finance, with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. As part of the launch conference, the central bank signed a memorandum of understanding with the Business Registration Agency (ARBK) to exchange data on businesses, particularly those owned or co-owned by women, and supporting institutions formally signed letters of intent to back the initiative with concrete activities. A central focus of the project is improving gender-disaggregated data to better understand the obstacles women face when seeking finance, especially women who lead or manage small and medium-sized enterprises. The central bank reported it has already amended its Credit Registry Guideline to add data fields aligned with the initiative and will further enhance the supervisory information it collects from financial institutions, including data on gender representation across organisational levels. The project also envisages public-facing data dashboards on key financial inclusion indicators, including metrics on women’s participation in financial institutions, to enable regular monitoring and support transparency and accountability. The launch forms part of implementing a cooperation agreement between the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed in October 2024, following an informational workshop with financial institutions in December 2024.