2. Mission and Impact
To expand the economic assets, participation, and power of low-
Mission income women and their households by helping them access
financial services, knowledge, and markets
One day all women will be able to build a secure financial future
Vision for themselves and their households
• Largest network in microfinance, built over 30 years
• 39 microfinance providers
• 27 countries: 7 in Africa, 8 in LAC, 6 in Asia, 6 in EMENA
Network • 26 million active clients, 80% women
• $7 billion in outstanding loan portfolio
• $3.5 billion in deposits
• Average loan size of $1,200 2
Women’s World Banking ®
3. Savings: The Game-Changer
• The poor can and do save through informal mechanisms; they need
a safe place to save
• What women clients want:
• Commitment savings accounts for lifecycle needs: school fees, daughter’s
wedding, housing (mimics benefits of ROSCAs)
• Savings plans co-developed with MFIs
• Marketing materials that is useful and understandable even if client is illiterate
• Financial education: classroom, embedded in marketing, social soap and
national communications campaign
• Confidentiality: plastic cards with ID numbers instead of passbook accounts
with balances clearly shown
• Convenience: door-to-door collection, agent banking through neighborhood
shops
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Women’s World Banking ®
4. Adult Savings: Four Flagship Network Members
SOLUTIONS
Create over the next ten years innovative
savings products and services for nearly
seven million low-income people especially
women in Latin America, Africa & Asia
WWB TECHNICAL SERVICES
Market Research, Product Design,
Marketing, Sales Training, Customer Care
and Alternative Delivery Channels
RESULTS
520,000 voluntary savings accounts opened
to date across partners
Women’s World Banking ®
5. Young Women and Girls: A New Segment
• Youth savings at MFIs in the Dominican
Republic and Mongolia
• The partnership presented an opportunity to
expand savings to a new segment,
increasing outreach in a new way
• WWB is working with two network member
MFIs to design, market and deliver savings
products and financial education to girls and
young women ages 7 to 24
• Results:
Months since beginning of pilot 26 18
Nationwide roll out Gradually rolling
Status
22 months ago out nationwide
Accounts open 6,089 4,679
Average % of accounts transacting /
50% 39%
month (last 6 months)*
Average balance US$62 US$16
Financial education participants 17,143 2,533
Women’s World Banking ®
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6. Making Savings Sustainable
• Maintaining deposits for clients can be expensive for MFIs
• Small account size
• Frequency of transactions
• High reserve requirements
• Stringent KYC requirements
• Regulators need to work with MFIs to enable lower cost
approaches to taking deposits
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Women’s World Banking ®
7. Alternative Delivery Channels
• Alternative Delivery Channels (ADCs) can benefit MFIs and clients
• Significantly reduce transaction costs for MFIs
• Can open up new, lower-income and more remote markets
• Regulatory issues
• Regulators need to allow banking transactions to occur outside of branches
• Implications for women
• High potential for impact on women
– 4.3 billion subscribers worldwide; 300 million fewer women than men
– The convenience and lower cost of secure, confidential and
appropriate products is a priority for women
– Limited mobility, literacy, and capacity to control assets
• Need to ensure technology is getting into the hands of women
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Women’s World Banking ®
8. Youth Savings
• The total global population of girls ages 10 to 24—already the largest in
history—is expected to peak in the next decade
• Girls have traditionally been overlooked by MFIs for a number reasons, their
opportunities for economic independence are minimal
• The accessibility of savings products and financial education programs tailored to
low-income girls has significant implications for their economic and social
empowerment
• Girls as young as 10 regularly accumulate money, actively manage it, and want a
safe place to save it
• Regulatory considerations
• Age requirements for savings accounts exclude youth from financial services
• Gender issues
• Girls less likely to be involved in activities where they can learn money management
skills
• Girls viewed as more expensive, generally not given opportunities to learn money
and business management, earn money
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Women’s World Banking ®
9. Regulations Can Unintentionally Create Barriers
• Regulations, such as Know Your Client requirements
and anti-terrorism measures, can hurt client
accessibility
• Proof of residency or proof of income are a hurdle for
low-income people, particularly women
• Many low-income women, especially those living in rural
areas, do not have ID cards
– Unique ID program (India)
• Initiatives like “no frills accounts” with simplified KYC
requirements are welcome
• Regulators can help with clear guidelines that minimize
uncertainty about how the standards will be interpreted
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Women’s World Banking ®
10. On-lending: Benefits for MFIs
• Savings are an alternative form of capital for MFIs
• Local currency and lower cost
• “Community” capital vs. external capital
• Diversified and stable source of funds
• Shifting funding mix towards deposits
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Women’s World Banking ®
11. Growing Microfinance Representation within Regulatory
Bodies
Ela Bhatt Georgette Jean-Louis
Appointed to the Board of the Appointed to the Haitian Central Bank’s
Reserve Bank of India Board of Directors 11
Women’s World Banking ®
