Savings: A Gateway to Financial Inclusion

This paper presents Women's World Banking's understanding and analysis of the impact of savings on women's lives. It gathers data from studies conducted on demand and feasibility for savings services, and research conducted into the drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty carried out in multiple markets. In addition, data was also gathered from other in-depth research studies conducted to better understand the ways in which women's roles within poor households affect the allocation of time and money and financial behaviors. Along with its partner banks, Women's World Banking states that there is a business case for mobilizing savings from low-income women, and makes the following observations:

• Banks looking to build a base of savings customers should target women as it makes good business sense;
• Small balance savings is a long-term strategy, as it takes time to scale and thus for the business impact to be felt;
• Offering a full range of services including savings also increases customer satisfaction and retention. This will reduce the negative impact of client churn on institutions profitability and growth prospects particularly in competitive markets;
• Small savings transactions are costly for banks to process, and shifting them from branches to other channels has potential to cut this cost by two-thirds.