All Publications
State of the Practice: Savings Group Linkages 2024
Based on interviews with 46 practitioners across various sectors, this report delineates the contemporary landscape of linkages between informal savings groups and formal financial services.
Increasing Access to Formal Financial Services
This learning brief describes three models that USAID-funded Feed the Future Rural Resilience Activity utilized to provide formal financial services, in particular credit and savings, to previously excluded populations in Northeast Nigeria.
Solidarity in Saving: Listening to Women's Needs During Crises
Based on 3,822 (majority women) VSLA member interviews, this brief represents quantitative data from Burundi, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, and Vietnam.
Universal Basic Income: Short-Term Results From a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya
This study examines the the consequences of universal basic income in the context of a unique field experiment in rural Kenya.
Voices of India’s MSMEs: Insights Notes From the Diaries Access to Finance
This note discusses examples from MSC's Financial Diaries research on informal enterprises and provides recommendations for policymakers and financial service providers to address the credit gap for them.
Digitizing BeninCajù Savings Groups - Final Project Report
This report shares important insights about the benefits of Village Savings and Lending Associations transitioning from paper to digital ledgers using the DreamSave app.
Savings Products for Low-Income Customers
This brief describes strategies adopted by a broad range of financial service providers to sustainably serve savings group members and other low-income savers.
Driving Financial Resilience Through Formal Savings Among the Low-Income Population
Based on customer research in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Uganda, this paper provides a synthesis of findings that help understand to what extent savings allowed customers to increase their financial resilience.
Driving Formal Savings: What Works for Low-Income Women
Building on findings from a recent customer research, this learning paper aims to understand of what services female customers value, prioritize and need.