Delivering Formal Financial Services to Savings Groups: A Handbook for Financial Service Providers

In many countries, savings groups (SGs) are one of the most – if not the most – well-organized and pervasive potential customer segment seeking access to formal financial services. This handbook is a reference guide for financial service providers, for the effective design and delivery of financial services for savings groups. It is comprised of three sections:

• Section 1 describes the market segment, who the customers are and what services they want;
• Section 2 provides insights into the three main challenges that financial service providers face in serving this market - last mile delivery, understanding the consumer needs and determining the business value - and how to respond to them;
• Section 3 details the steps in the design and delivery of financial products to SGs and includes case studies that illustrate the successes and challenges realized in this process.

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.