There are over 14 million members of Savings Groups across 75 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, representing a promising platform for financial inclusion in underserved markets. Savings Groups offer an entry point for financial service providers to isolated communities; they are organized, experienced and disciplined; they aggregate demand across many low-income clients; and they have identified needs that financial service providers can address.

Delivering Formal Financial Services to Savings Groups: A Handbook for Financial Service Providers is a reference guide for financial service providers, for the effective design and delivery of financial services for Savings Groups.

“These groups represent a massive opportunity for financial service providers with respect to customer acquisition, raising domestic deposits, and the cross-selling of financial products,” explains Prabhat Labh, Program Manager, Financial Inclusion at The MasterCard Foundation. “Lack of understanding about these opportunities has prevented financial service providers from developing deeper engagement with Savings Groups. This handbook has the potential to transform how financial service providers engage with this segment. It achieves a fine balance between doing things right and doing them well.”

Commenting on the handbook, Christian Pennotti, Director of Access Africa at CARE International says: “In many countries, Savings Groups are one of the most – if not the most – well organized and pervasive potential customer segment seeking access to formal financial services. With the support of this guide, financial service providers and their partners have a new go-to resource to design solutions that can effectively meet this demand, drive financial inclusion and close critical access gaps for women and other excluded populations.”