Aging comes with substantial, additional risk of becoming or remaining poor. The UN estimates that…
Savings
Sustaining Savings Groups Linked to Financial Institutions Amid the COVID-19 Crisis
This blog looks at some of the recommendations put across by MSC on how savings…
Mobile Money Saving Accounts: Helping the Bottom of the Pyramid to Save in Zimbabwe
This paper on Academia discusses a serious problem confronting Zimbabwe, the savings gap, which essentially…
Digitizing Savings Groups: Evidence from Tanzania
Digital financial services reach men and women where they live, work and play—bringing banking services…
Digital Initiatives by Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women: A Lesson for Progressive MFIs in Bangladesh
MicroSave Consulting has issued two case studies concerning Shakti Foundation’s digital initiatives for women. The…
Digital Savings Groups
The SEEP Network defines digital savings groups (DSGs) as “technologies and systems that digitize savings…
Savings at the Frontier – Getting closer
Savings at the Frontier (SatF) was set up in 2015 to promote formal financial service…
Designing Products and Developing Institutions to Serve Low-income Women”
Major takeaways from this publication from Women’s World Banking include: How to develop a successful…
How we can save (for) our future
The challenges to provide ageing populations with a financially secure retirement are well known. Recent trends…
Women’s Empowerment and Savings Groups: What do we know?
The SEEP Network examined the pathways between Savings Groups and women’s empowerment and how how women’s…
Acquisition and Engagement Strategies to Reach Women with Digital Financial Services
Women’s World Banking and Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA), have partnered since 2014 to build…
State of Practice: Savings Groups and the Role of Government in Sub-Saharan Africa
Savings Groups are community-based financial service providers that deliver basic financial services to millions of…
State of Practice: Savings Groups and the Dynamics of Inclusion – Main Findings
This state of practice report provides a comprehensive overview of the inclusion of vulnerable populations…
An Empirical Risk Assessment of Savings Groups
The purpose of this risk assessment is to identify and assess the main risks that…
Do agent networks help to boost savings?
Savings benefit both the providers of Digital Financial Services (DFS) and their customers. Customers who…
How can users begin to keep value digital, longer?
Customers keep value digital either with the intention of saving or for convenience. Beyond the financial inclusion…
Politics of aging: the risk of old age poverty in emerging countries
This paper looked at the risk of old age poverty. It found that there is…
How to Succeed in Your Digital Journey: A Series of Toolkits for Financial Service Providers – Toolkit #6: Become a Digital Provider
This toolkit from UNCDFP describes different paths for a financial service provider (FSP) to become a…
What are savings groups?
Many savings groups’ initiatives are born locally, in a decentralized manner, and stem from long-standing…
Is There a Business Case for Small Savers?
This study by CGAP examines quantitatively whether or not small savers—defined here as the half…
Research and Impacts of Digital Financial Services
A growing body of rigorous research shows that financial services innovations can have important positive…
Saving for Change: Financial inclusion and resilience for the world’s poorest people
Three-quarters of the world’s poorest people do not have a formal bank account. With few…
Two steps back: How low income Kenyans think about and experience risk in their pursuit of prosperity
The climb out of poverty is seldom a smooth one. Life rarely bestows good fortune…
Exploring Business Pathways to Digital Financial Inclusion: Early Indications from a Field Visit to Ghana and Tanzania
This report by David Porteous and Ignacio Mas contains an initial evaluation of the opportunities…
Savings for the Poor: Banking on Mobile Phones
The paper by Ignacio Mas reviews the relevance of formal financial services – and in…
Savings as forward Payments: Innovations on Mobile Money Platforms
This paper by Ignacio Mas presents a new framework which allows people to manage their…
Evidence on Child and Youth Savings
In three recent studies by IPA, researchers measured the impacts of offering savings accounts and…
Effect of Income Timing and Structure on Consumption and Savings Behavior in Malawi
The researchers evaluated whether paying workers on a weekly basis or in one lump sum…
The Great Competition and Innovation Deficit
In this thoughtful and provocative blog post, Ignacio Mas lays down a series of challenges…
Digitizing the Kaleidoscope of Informal Financial Practices
This paper contrasts the psychological and cultural richness of informal savings mechanisms with the simpler,…