Finance
‘Females In Finance’ Collective Marks 1 Year And 1000 Members At NYSE
FIF Collective marks one year and 1000 members at NYSE June 24th
Muriel Siebert, known as the ‘First Woman of Finance,’ was the first woman ever to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967. She was a passionate advocate for gender equality and remembered as a woman who refused to take no for an answer. Known to have famously threatened the NYSE Chairman with the installation of a portable toilet on the trading floor if a women’s restroom was not granted, and her public appearances with her Chihuahua ‘Monster Girl,’ named in tribute to how neither one was intimidated by ‘the big dogs,’ she had an unyielding confidence and determination that cultivated a rare respectability for women of her era. So rare, she remained the only woman in a ratio of 1365:1 at the NYSE for over a decade.
FIF Collective
Fast forward 57 years later, and it seemed like the perfect fit for the ‘Female in Finance Collective (FIF), led by group CEO Meghan McKenna, to gather in the Muriel Siebel room at the NYSE on June 20th to celebrate its one-year birthday and surpassing its 1000 member milestone. The Collective, is described as ‘an invite-only, highly selective group of Founders, CEOs, CFOs, VPs of Finance, VC Partners, and leaders, with a mission to advance the profiles of women through board seats, job opportunities, networking, learning, and great parties around the world.’
McKenna, like Siebert, is described by many as a woman to whom it is impossible to say no. She is known for her brash humor, charming confidence, low tolerance for inequality, and unwavering belief that change is possible. She equates these attributes to her college basketball career and her humble upbringing in the Bronx as the daughter of a New York Police Officer. “I’ve always stayed true to what I know is right and stood up for others around me,” she says, “that hasn’t always been an easy path to take. I have worked in teams where I was told I was ‘tough to manage,’ just for being honest. But I stay true to my values. We owe that to ourselves and other women.”
McKenna, who founded FIF shortly before starting a new role as a Managing Director at Stifel Bank, says that although the idea had floated in her head for many years, it was the pause between roles that gave her the headspace to make it happen. Yet she was not ready to exit a career she loves and was looking for a home to combine her experience, talent, and FIF, which she found at Stifel. “This is an industry that can be more performative than meaningful when it comes to gender equity, but Stifel has walked the walk when it comes to supporting women,” she says. “My network is my net worth and the team at Stifel really understand and support that. They see the broad industry value FIF creates for everyone.”
FIF founding team, From left: Christian Brosnan, Amy Kux, Jean Brosnan, Meghan McKenna, Angie … [+]
She says FIF was born after two decades of seeing countless gaps and lost opportunities for women and bottom-line impacts on business. “Women are not progressing at a rate that makes sense for their capabilities and industry needs,” she says. The effect of this is backed by data, such as the 2022 World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report,’ which revealed females in finance remain one of the most untapped business resources. The share of women in global C-suite roles in the financial services industry worldwide reached 18.4 percent in 2023, and predictions from a recent Statista Study estimate a growth to 21.8 percent by 2031.
For McKenna and the team at FIF, the idea of waiting another near-decade for a mere 3.4 percentage point increase in female representation is not a reality they are willing to accept. Yet the trillion dollar question remains, how can we improve this? While there is no magic bullet solution, they believe the right place to start, is to look to each other and initiate a collective effort for change.
The cost equals the commitment
FIF is not alone in this mission. There has been a widespread proliferation of communities and programs promising to empower women and accelerate their professional success, an approach many consider crucial for women. Yet unlike many of these networks, which incur sizable membership fees and restrict their events to women, FIF takes a different approach. McKenna says she wanted a ‘personally free network for qualifying women. “This is a network of decision-makers and investors who bring merit she says, “I want them to bring their passion to this mission at no cost but their commitment to cultivate change.”
A strategy for sponsors and allies
Instead, the monetization will come via paid talent matching and a sponsorship program for events and seminars open to men and women. This strategy appears to work well for McKenna, who has fostered a growing partner ecosystem of over 30 sponsors in year one, including names like Deloitte, Amazon, KPMG, Samsung Next, Netsuite, Davis Polk, and Ramp, hosted 12 events across the cities of New York, San Francisco, Boston and Washington DC.
FIF sponsors gathering at NYSE to mark 1 year From left: Iris Chen- Cross Country Consulting, … [+]
Ken Egan, Partner at Cross Country Consulting, shares that he finds this approach effective as it focuses on bottom-line impacts and brings others along on the journey. In doing so, there is an organic allyship, something that critics of female-only networks often highlight as a missing link. “I have attended events and seen the value FIF brings,” he says, “This is a tough industry for women, and businesses in knowing how best to support but often showing up is half the battle. FIF forces people out of their comfort zones in a healthy way and creates a conscious and intentional level of connection.”
The burden of proof over potential
For venture capitalist Marissa Hodgdon, CEO of Sidelines.Vc, the nature of that intent is critical. She shares that a key challenge women in the finance industry face is the burden of ‘proof over potential.’ The ‘you know what you know’ effect that has worked very favorably for white males, who continue to receive more than 90% of annual VC dollars. She believes they will continue to do so unless women create a new wave of intentional change. Hodgdon, who is partnering with FIF to bring investment and advisory opportunities to the Collective, says, ‘we need to be targeted in putting opportunities for advisory roles and investment in front of women. FIF is the perfect forum for us to do this. A high caliber network of well-informed women creating change for themselves.”
The power of possibility
Much of the focus on financial leadership centers on business models—revenues, costs, niches, and leverage. However, what women often need are new mental models. Gaingels CEO Jennifer Jeronimo sees her firm’s partnership with FIF as a catalyst to create a new sense of possibility. Addressing the audience at the NYSE event, she gave the analogy of Roger Bannister, who shocked the world with the power of the possibility by breaking the record for the four-minute mile, once deemed hopelessly impossible, yet achieved by over 1000 runners since. Jeronimo wants to bring that same power of possibility to women in the VC realm and diversify the face of an industry that often looks and sounds the same.
FIF Collective CEO Meghan McKenna joins Judy Shaw Floor Talk at NYSE June 20th 2024 to celebrate 1 … [+]
What’s next for FIF?
Seaaoned finance exec and fractional CFO Amy Kux, a founding member of FIF says, “I have been part of many networks over the course of my career, but FIF is one of the only communities that promotes helping one another as its mission, and we cannot waver on that.”
This is an important factor for McKenna and the team at FIF as they look to the future and consider opportunities to grow the collective across new cities in the USA and international . McKenna says they will not put scale above substance and instead stay focused on their core values and strategic objectives by continuing to listen to one another. “We are a group of women who have created this as a labor of love and bootstrapped our way to now. We are not salaried, we do this voluntarily and most of us have full time jobs. Of course we want to grow and monetize to better resource and reinvest, but for now our core focus is not on headline growth but ensuring we maintain a high caliber community. That is what makes FIF so impactful.”
Muriel Siebert once said, “you create opportunities by performing not complaining.” For the women at FIF Collective this is a mantra for the next stage, as they look to build a future for females in finance by proving the power of connection, and collectively challenging the status quo.
 
Author: Leonardo Aguilera, CEO, Banreservas
Banreservas’ international expansion strategy is centred on strengthening economic ties with the Dominican diaspora as a strategic economic partner, rather than just operating as a full retail bank abroad, and the bank has successfully used mortgage fairs as part of this expansion strategy. These client-centric engagement events bring together diaspora clients, credible Dominican real estate developers, fiduciary-backed projects and bank representatives in one venue to help address key diaspora challenges such as distance and lack of trusted intermediaries, legal and documentation uncertainty, difficulty assessing projects remotely and limited access to tailored financing.
By simplifying the sending process from the US and Europe, reducing operational friction, and offering greater convenience and security, Banreservas has incentivised increased use of formal remittance channels. This strategy has had, and is expected to continue to have, a highly positive impact on remittance flows to the Dominican Republic, both in terms of volume and formalisation.
Reimagining the diaspora relationship
Banreservas’ model relies on representative offices set in strategic cities to provide advisory, pre-qualification and customer support services, while the financing and account opening itself is referred to Banreservas in the Dominican Republic, where they are operatively managed and booked.
The US (New York and Miami) and Spain (Madrid) were chosen as priority hubs to channel diaspora engagement and long-term investment because they are home to some of the largest and most economically active Dominican communities worldwide. By establishing representative offices in these strategic locations, Banreservas delivers tailored financial services to historically underserved expatriate communities, enabling them to invest, save, and build wealth in the Dominican Republic while contributing to national economic development, unlocking sustainable growth opportunities and deepening its role as a financial bridge between Dominicans abroad and their home country.
Banreservas uses mortgage fairs to compress what is traditionally a long, fragmented cross‑border process into a single, guided experience that combines education, advisory, and support. Diaspora clients can receive on-the-spot pre-qualification, explore real estate projects nationwide, and receive information and guidance about loan processes, although final approvals and disbursements are processed in the Dominican Republic.
The response in the US and Madrid has been characterised by sustained momentum and the diversity of participant profiles, from first-time buyers to repeat investors and returning nationals, which suggests that the fairs are resonating beyond a narrow segment of the diaspora. In US cities with long-established Dominican communities, the fairs have evolved into anticipated events rather than exploratory initiatives, with those in New York and Lawrence generating financing exceeding $49m. However, the initiative was newer in Europe, so the response in Madrid followed a slightly different trajectory, with early editions focusing heavily on education and orientation. That said, the first fair in Madrid attracted thousands of participants and closed with financing requests of more than $21m.
Risk mitigation is central to the model and projects are carefully vetted, many supported under a fiduciary account or an estate asset trust fund and backed by clear legal frameworks. Banreservas’ direct involvement is one of the defining features of its diaspora strategy to ensure transparency, regulatory compliance and investor protection throughout the process. By offering direct access to Banreservas’ experts, vetted developers, fiduciary-backed projects and consistent financing terms, these events are helping create a relationship-building platform that improves transparency, credibility and institutional confidence. Internal customer experience reports emphasise that word-of-mouth referrals, repeat attendance, and post-fair engagement are among the clearest indicators that trust has been established organically, particularly within close-knit diaspora communities. Banreservas’ role as the national leading institution further reassures clients investing from abroad.
Transaction to transformation
Rather than a single-product offering, Banreservas approaches diaspora customers with a portfolio mindset, providing a robust cross-border selection including mortgage loans, savings and checking accounts, remittance-linked products and investment solutions tied to real estate development.
Banreservas has deliberately adopted a scalable and selective expansion logic
Remittances are a core strategic pillar of Banreservas’ international expansion, and the creation of new digital channels and specialised financial products are helping transform remittances into a gateway for deepening financial inclusion. The Remesas Reservas app enables Dominicans abroad to send money from the US and Europe using international cards, with funds credited directly to bank accounts or debit cards in the Dominican Republic, eliminating the need for cash, queues, or physical travel. The app is complemented by the home delivery remittances service, which extends financial access to rural communities that were previously excluded from the formal financial system. Service performance data shows that 97 percent of remittances sent through the app complete the entire process digitally, while 94 percent are received directly in bank accounts, strengthening financial traceability. This supports the sustainability and potential growth of remittance inflows to the Dominican Republic that already exceeds $12bn annually, while also expanding the banked customer base and improving the overall efficiency of the national financial ecosystem.
The strategy is further strengthened by the introduction of remittance-based consumer and mortgage loans, specifically designed for remittance recipients. These products allow recurring remittance flows to be converted into formal financial history, facilitating access to credit, and reinforcing the ‘bankarisation’ process. As a result, remittances evolve from a basic transfer mechanism into a financial development tool, integrating beneficiaries into the banking system with solutions tailored to their real income patterns and needs.
Mortgage financing in the Dominican Republic is embedded within a broader set of banking solutions designed to support the full investment and ownership journey. At the core are residential mortgage products structured for non-resident clients looking to acquire property in the Dominican Republic. These are complemented by linked deposit and savings accounts, which allow clients to organise funds, manage payments and maintain an ongoing banking relationship once the purchase process begins. In parallel, Banreservas leverages its digital channels and remittance services to facilitate the movement of funds and day-to-day interaction with Banreservas, reinforcing continuity beyond the initial transaction.
For first-time diaspora investors, the emphasis is on financial orientation and readiness with solutions structured to simplify entry into the formal mortgage system in the Dominican Republic. For returning nationals, products and advisory conversations are typically aligned with reintegration objectives. In both cases, the underlying principle is adaptability within a controlled institutional framework, rather than bespoke products that introduce additional risk.
They have the support of President Luis Abinader, who has created the conditions for Dominicans in the diaspora take advantage of the macroeconomic stability, legal security, and full guarantees that receive all foreign investors who trust in the Dominican Republic to make their business.
Modernising remittance ecosystem
Modernising the remittance ecosystem combined with specialised financial products generates a direct multiplier effect on strategic sectors, strengthening the real economy and territorial development. In the construction sector, the remittance mortgage loan transforms recurring remittance flows into formal financing capacity for homeownership and has taken centre stage in Banreservas’ participation in international mortgage fairs. Diaspora demand supports property acquisition and upstream activities such as project development, construction services, materials supply, legal services and professional employment.
Equally important is the impact on financial deepening and formalisation. When diaspora investors enter the banking system through regulated mortgage channels, their participation strengthens the use of formal financial products, thereby expanding the reach and resilience of the financial system. This dynamic is a key contribution to economic maturity, as it encourages long-term financial relationships rather than one-time transactions.
From a tourism perspective, the strategy strengthens the economic and emotional ties between the diaspora and the country. Home purchases financed through mortgage loans paid via remittances promote more frequent visits, longer stays, and increased spending on tourism-related services, while also encouraging investment in vacation properties and second homes. Additionally, increased formal income and financial inclusion among remittance-receiving households boosts domestic consumption, benefiting transportation, commerce and service sectors closely linked to tourism.
The scalable model
Banreservas has deliberately adopted a scalable and selective expansion logic, prioritising model stabilisation in proven markets before extending to new ones. However, any future expansions are likely to be opportunity-driven and phased, to ensure that each new market sustains long-term client relationships. This strategy allows for progressive expansion, but only where three conditions converge: concentrated Dominican diaspora communities with sustained economic ties to the Dominican Republic, regulatory and operational feasibility, particularly the ability to support activity through representative offices or equivalent structures, and demonstrated demand signals.
The next three to five years points to a qualitative shift in diaspora investment behaviour. First, there is a clear movement from sentimental ownership to strategic investment. Second, diaspora investors are showing a stronger preference for formal, institutionally mediated channels. And finally, the younger diaspora segment tends to prioritise entry-level or future-orientated assets, while more established individuals focus on retirement, anchoring, or reintegration-linked purchases. This diversification of motivations is influencing how Banreservas structures advisory conversations and sequences client engagement over time.
With diaspora investment contributing to national economic development primarily by transforming external household income into structured, long-term domestic capital, Banreservas’ long-term objectives are driving financial inclusion, fostering foreign direct investment and supporting key productive sectors. By empowering confident diaspora investment, Banreservas reinforces its leadership role in national development while expanding its international footprint in a sustainable way by adopting a focused model that strengthens value creation in the Dominican Republic through targeted international interaction.
From a growth perspective, the expansion allows Banreservas to diversify its customer acquisition channels by engaging Dominican communities abroad at earlier stages of their financial decision-making. From an economic development standpoint, the strategy is goal orientated.
By facilitating diaspora investment in housing and related sectors in the Dominican Republic, Banreservas acts as a conduit that transforms external income flows into productive domestic investment.
TORONTO — Insurance provider Intact Financial Corp. says it had higher catastrophe losses and large losses in the second quarter than it initially expected.
Intact Financial reported that its combined catastrophe and large losses were $247 million above its expectations for the second quarter on a pre-tax and net of reinsurance basis.
The combined higher losses amount to $1.08 per diluted common share after tax.
Total catastrophe losses reached $416 million on a pre-tax basis during the second quarter and net of reinsurance.
The company says catastrophe losses in Canada were due to weather events, while commercial fires drove losses in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Intact Financial says the increase in large losses included higher-frequency fire claims as well as other property losses across different geographies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX: IFC)
The Canadian Press
For a company navigating one of the most consequential transformations in its history, financial clarity is not optional—it is essential. Natura &Co, the Brazilian personal care and cosmetics group behind iconic brands such as Natura and Avon, has long been committed to combining purpose-driven business with commercial performance. After a period of strategic portfolio reshaping, including the divestiture of its Aesop and The Body Shop holdings, the company is now sharpening its focus on profitability and operational excellence across Latin America and global markets.
At the center of that effort sits a deceptively complex challenge: understanding, in real time, which revenue and cost factors are driving or eroding gross margin across a highly diversified business. For years, answering that question meant manual reporting, delayed insights, and finance teams spending valuable time on data gathering rather than analysis.
That’s now changing, thanks to a co-innovation initiative developed together with SAP and Numen, a global SAP partner specializing in digital transformation and enterprise software implementation.
From manual reporting to proactive decision intelligence
The project’s goal was to replace a labor-intensive gross margin analysis process with a generative AI application embedded directly into Natura &Co’s financial workflows. Built on SAP Business AI Platform, SAP’s unified foundation integrating business technology, data, and AI capabilities, the application connects directly to data in SAP S/4HANA to provide finance teams with automated insights and narrative recommendations in real time, without the need for manual data pulls or offline reporting.
The application enables users to explore revenue, cost, and margin drivers interactively, identifying at a glance which elements are protecting or eroding margin performance across markets and product lines. Crucially, human oversight remains central to the design: the AI application generates insights, while finance professionals retain full control over interpretation and decisions.
“The implementation of gross margin analysis using AI in SAP S/4HANA marked an inflection point in the analytical capability of our finance area,” said Rogério Dias Garcia, tech manager, ERP Latam, Natura &Co. “We overcame delays and raised the standard of insights by integrating margin analysis from SAP S/4HANA with a large language model connected via the SAP AI Core layer. This architecture allowed us to provide, in an agile, secure, and completely anonymous manner, a stratified and precise view of gross margin offenders and protectors—discriminating exactly which revenue or cost elements were driving market performance.”
A collaborative architecture for scalable AI adoption
Natura &Co’s application derived from a prototype SAP partner Numen created in early 2024 at SAP’s global Hack2Build on business AI, leveraging the generative AI capabilities of SAP Business AI Platform. The solution was designed and developed through close collaboration between Natura &Co, Numen, and SAP. From the outset, the approach was to align AI adoption with concrete business priorities, ensuring the application would be scalable and production-ready rather than a standalone prototype.
Numen brought deep SAP implementation expertise to the project, combining knowledge of SAP S/4HANA architecture with hands-on experience in building solutions on SAP Business AI Platform. The technology stack—SAP S/4HANA, SAP AI Core, SAP Fiori, and SAP Business Technology Platform—provided the secure, integrated foundation needed to connect financial data with generative AI capabilities in an enterprise context.
“SAP enabled the transformation by providing the technological foundation and expert support,” said Carlos Aravechia, head of Data Design & Intelligence at Numen.
The success of the project has validated a broader conviction at Natura &Co: that generative AI, embedded directly in ERP workflows, can fundamentally reposition finance from a transactional function to a strategic business partner.
A blueprint for other businesses
The Natura &Co project demonstrates a pattern that other organizations can replicate, particularly those running SAP S/4HANA. The combination of structured ERP data with the contextual reasoning capabilities of large language models creates a foundation for decision intelligence that goes well beyond traditional business intelligence tools.
The project was built within a six-month co-innovation sprint and went live in August 2025. It is currently in use across Natura &Co’s Equador operations.
Looking ahead, Natura &Co is already planning the next phase: integrating Joule Agents to further automate the extraction of standard analytical content and deepen the AI-driven optimization of financial processes.
“The success of this initiative validates the transformative potential of embedded AI within our ERP,” Dias Garcia noted. “We are now ready to move forward—deepening these insights and integrating the capability of Joule Agents to maximize the extraction of standard content and further optimize our business decisions.”
For SAP customers evaluating how to move from AI experimentation to AI in production, the Natura &Co project offers a concrete, replicable model: start with a high-value, well-defined business process, embed AI directly into existing workflows, and build in human oversight from the start.
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