CGAP Savings Information Resource Center

Who are the Clients of Savings Banks?

A poverty assessment of the clients reached by savings banks in India, Mexico, Tanzania and Thailand

This WSBI study commissioned by CGAP explores how well savings banks reach clients at different poverty levels and how different clients use financial products.

Executive Summary
Full Study

A recent issue of CGAP's e-newsletter PORTFOLIO is now available on-line.
In this issue: Savings

• Savings for Poor People: Good for clients, good for business?
• Behind the Headlines: Savings and Asset Building for the Poor
  An interview with CGAP microfinance experts Kate McKee and Evelyn Stark
• Innovative Marketing in Peru: Helping poor people save?
• Data Download: Everything you ever wanted to know about savings

The True Cost of Deposit Mobilization (Draft)

This draft report presents findings from an activity-based cost study of deposit services in five financial institutions. The study reveals that a total deposit cost varies dramatically among the institutions and that the cost of deposits alone does not determine their attractiveness to institutions. For all five institutions, the contribution of deposit services to their social mission makes up for their impact on overall profitability. Read the report here.

New CGAP Study on Self-Help Groups in India

In a country where 50 million households live in poverty with limited access to financial services, self help groups (SHGs) are servicing over 33 million members and have become the dominant model of microfinance. CGAP's new two-part study examines the financial viability of SHGs in India and proposes a methodology for designing SHG programs to ensure their sustainability. Nine strong SHG programs demonstrate the potential of the model when it is well executed. To read about this new research and a highlight of its savings implications, click here.

• Community finance models interviews:
  Building on the issues raised in the SHG paper, CGAP is organizing a series of interviews with leading practitioners that compare the SHG model with other community finance models.

Practitioners' Corner

Online Q&As with practitioners feature innovations from all over the world.

• Working at Both Ends: Enhancing Supply and Demand for Savings Mobilization in Rural Uganda. Discover how Rural SPEED is working to enhance savings from both the supply and demand side.
• Banking on the Future: Read how Hatton National Bank in Sri Lanka is encouraging children to save with school banking products.
• Text-A-Deposit: Discover how the use of cell phone technology in the Philippines has facilitated remittances and withdrawals.
• Partnerships for Savings Mobilization: Learn how an FIE in Bolivia has teamed up with NGOs to increase its outreach to small savers.
• Reaching More Savers: Find out how ACSI in Ethiopia is developing savings to have a sustainable source of funding in the long term.