Women’s health firms face banking barriers after being tagged as ‘adult services’

Financial services providers across Europe and the UK are incorrectly classifying female-focused healthcare ventures as high risk enterprises, placing them in the same category as weapons dealers and tobacco companies.

As reported by The Banker, research by advocacy organisation CensHERship found that many women’s wellness technology companies are being denied standard banking services and payment processing facilities because of flawed classification protocols.

The investigation found significant inconsistencies in how financial institutions assess these businesses. 

SheSpot, a British company specialising in female intimate wellness, received conflicting decisions from different divisions within the same bank.

Co-founder Kalila Bolton, who took part in the study, explained that one department initially classified their venture as “higher risk” alongside firearms and tobacco, while another branch of the same bank later said they were “fine with it”.

Similarly, HANX, a manufacturer of condoms designed to support vaginal microbiome health, faced payment processing rejection after being incorrectly labelled as an “adult services business”.

Published this week, the CensHERship analysis links these barriers to “outdated classification systems, over-compliance and cultural discomfort” that together prevent legitimate healthcare enterprises from accessing essential financial infrastructure.

The findings suggest that women’s wellness ventures are “routinely flagged, delayed, rejected or deplatformed”, outcomes that stem not from actual regulations but from financial and ecommerce systems that “default to caution” when dealing with women’s health topics that remain poorly understood or culturally sensitive.

CensHERship co founder Anna O’Sullivan said these results usually arise from unfamiliarity rather than deliberate discrimination.

“In most cases, this isn’t malicious or intentional — it’s what happens when people and systems meet something unfamiliar,” O’Sullivan said in a statement. 

“But this unconscious bias can materially affect a founder’s ability to start, grow and scale a business.”

Investment platform The Case for Her, which partnered with CensHERship on the report, described the issue through co founders Wendy Anderson and Cristina Ljungberg as a clear “market failure” when founders cannot secure basic banking relationships.

“Fixing this issue is essential if we want to unlock one of the most promising growth markets in global health,” they said.

Risk consultant Aoife Mansfield, managing director at Athrú Group and a contributor to the report, said that terms such as “vagina” or “menstrual” trigger automated alerts within financial systems because they appear on the same watchlists as adult entertainment or pornography, raising a “red flag” in the systems used by banks and payment service providers.

O’Sullivan urged financial service providers to update their internal procedures, review their risk tolerance settings and explicitly include women’s healthcare within their approved client categories.

“They could remove this friction almost overnight,” she said.

The CensHERship analysis includes findings from across the UK and Europe, based on survey responses from more than 30 women’s health enterprises and interviews with founders, insurance underwriters, and compliance and risk professionals.