Women's World Banking 109d ago

Tokenized payments promise instant settlement, near-zero transaction costs, and fewer intermediaries—but can they actually work for low-income women and women-led MSMEs operating on thin margins and informal cash flows? In this episode, we’re joined by Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer at Circle, to unpack the real potential—and real constraints—of stablecoins and tokenized cash. We explore whether faster, cheaper money movement can meaningfully improve liquidity, reduce remittance and transfer fees, and increase economic certainty for women entrepreneurs—or whether structural, regulatory, and access barriers still stand in the way. This conversation cuts through the hype to ask a sharper question: What would it take for tokenized money to expand women’s economic opportunity at scale? Guest: Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer, Circle After 9 years serving as Circle’s COO, Elisabeth turned her attention to accelerating and giving permanence to our broader mission to raise global economic prosperity. Leading global strategic engagement, she forges relationships with critical commercial, non-profit, and non-governmental organizations to drive Circle’s mission through stablecoin network growth and adoption worldwide. She brings decades of experience leading companies revolutionizing industries ranging from financial services to nonprofit fundraising to media as COO of Evertrue, and SVP at Brightcove, News Corporation and BSkyB. Host: Sonja Kelly, Global Head, Women’s World Banking Institute Sonja is the global lead for Women’s World Banking research and learning. Through research on the financial sector, policy trends, financial services providers, and end users, Sonja and her team advocate for women’s financial inclusion. Before joining Women’s World Banking, she advised the U.S. Department of State on strategy for U.S. Embassy engagement in digital finance around the world. She has served as the director of research at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, has held consulting roles at the World Bank and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and has worked in microfinance at Opportunity International. Sonja holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from American University where she researched financial inclusion policy and regulation.