A new report from independent market analyst Datamonitor revealed that the number of wealthy women is soaring and the wealth gap between men and women is narrowing rapidly.
The growing number of wealthy women has led to banks putting in place a number of initiatives to attract more women clients. However, Lauren McAughtry, a financial services analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report, warned that “the ‘champagne and chocolate approach’ won’t work. Women are looking for more from their private bank than a spa discount and a pink Web site.”
In 2005 there were more high net worth women in the UK than men, with 448,100 high net worth women and 429,300 men. Together, they held 235.5 billion in onshore liquid assets in 2005.
Currently, women make up around 46 percent of Britain’s 376,000 millionaires, and their number is growing by almost 11 percent annually.
The wealth gap between relative wealth levels still exist but it is narrowing rapidly, the report found. The gap has fallen by 30.8 percent to 993,805 in the past decade. Therefore, between 1998 and 2006, a male millionaire’s average wealth increased by 9.1 percent while the average worth of a female millionaire grew by 54 percent.