Who are the Clients of Savings Banks? A Poverty Assessment of the Clients Reached by Savings Banks in India, Mexico, Tanzania and Thailand (Brief)

Publication Date: Jan 2008
Published by: World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI)
Document Type: Paper

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This brief summarizes results from a study that uses CGAP’s Poverty Assessment Tool (PAT) to measure outreach by saving banks in India, Mexico, Tanzania and Thailand.

This study examines how well savings banks reach clients at different poverty levels and how different clients use financial products.

The study looks at four savings banks from India, Mexico, Tanzania, and Thailand. Client surveys include a broad set of questions about each household situation based on CGAP’s Poverty Assessment Tool (PAT).

The study findings are as follows:

• The four savings banks are large providers of financial services in their countries, and they each have significant outreach among the poorest households;
• The poorest clients in all institutions tend to use their savings accounts actively;
• In Tanzania and Thailand, savings product use is more evenly spread across the socio-economic spectrum than is credit product use;
• Distribution mechanisms affect the extent of outreach: savings banks in India and Tanzania that rely on indirect distribution channels serve a greater percentage of better-off households;
• Direct ownership of distribution networks appears to be a critical factor in reaching poorer clients.

The study concludes that:

• Savings banks are very large providers of financial services in all socio-economic segments;
• They balance their breadth of outreach with a significant depth of outreach;
• They hold great potential for delivering accessible financial services for all;
• Distribution policies are important;
• Direct controls of customer interface and staff incentives are necessary to actively reach the poorest segments of society.

To access the full report please, click here.