Savings Products for Low-Income Customers

Providing financial services to low-income customers at scale and in a viable manner has long been a quest for financial inclusion stakeholders. With the exception of loan products, there has been limited practical evidence on the business case for products – such as savings, insurance, and payments – targeting low-income customers.

This brief describes strategies adopted by a broad range of financial service providers (FSPs) to sustainably serve savings group members and other low-income savers. It synthesizes learning based on data collected and published by two programs supported by the Mastercard Foundation as part of the Savings Learning Lab since 2015.

It is targeted at financial inclusion practitioners, donors and investors who are interested in designing commercially sustainable approaches and solutions for savings and other financial products for low-income customers.