Savings: The Forgotten Half of Financial Interventions

This paper reports on a three-day e-discussion on the importance of savings. The discussion specifically focused on the continuing mismatch between demand and supply of savings services.

During the course of three days, participants looked at savings from the perspectives of users, and suppliers and examined the delivery of savings services in difficult areas. Specific topics discussed include:

• Potential role of education in helping poor people save;
• Social capital and savings in SHG networks;
• Relationship between savings and behaviour change;
• Lessons from informal savings mechanisms;
• Savings limits as an instrument of exclusion;
• Methods to ensure the safety of savings;
• Mobile solutions for serving remote and sparsely populated areas;
• Regulatory constraints;
• Potential role of post banks in lending;
• Partnering arrangements;
• Role of banking facilitators and correspondents in financial inclusion;
• Cell phone technology;
• Legal structures and their challenges in delivering savings services;
• External support to ensure deposit mobilization.

Finally, participants also discussed the role of informal financial institutions in delivering savings services to people in difficult areas.