Newsweek - USA (2019-11-29)

32 NEWSWEEK.COM

MONEY

hen it comes to getting

credit, women historically have gotten a raw deal.

Before 1974, when the Equal Credit Opportunity

Act passed, most lenders and credit card companies

wouldn’t even consider female applicants without

a male cosigner. More recently, studies have found

that, all else being equal, women typically are

charged a half point more in interest than men on

credit cards and get stuck with higher mortgage

rates as well. As for getting a loan if you’re a female

entrepreneur, the odds are really stacked against

you: Less than 3 percent of venture capital funding

goes to women founders—and the loans they get,

on average, are less than half what men nab, despite

bringing in twice as much revenue.

Given the lending industry’s checkered record

when it comes to women, it isn’t surprising that

charges of sexism tend to fall on receptive ears.

Which is why, when a millionaire tech entrepre-

neur blasted social media recently with complaints

that the Apple Card had discriminated against his

wife, the tweets and outrage quickly went viral and

have been gaining traction ever since.

What may be surprising, though: There is no

proof that discrimination actually took place.

Although the secret nature of credit card algo-

rithms at the heart of the dispute make it impossible

to know for sure, many experts believe less nefarious

factors likely explain why the entrepreneur’s spouse

was given a far lower credit limit than he got. They

also point out that the questions the controversy rais-

es are not unique to Apple Card and its joint-venture

partners Apple Inc. and Goldman Sachs but instead

are common throughout the credit card industry.

“Gender inequality in financial services is a huge

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

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