Beyond basic credit and savings: Developing new financial service products for the poor

Subscribe
FR
Light Dark

Beyond basic credit and savings: Developing new financial service products for the poor

by Graham Wright
Jan 9, 1997
1 min

The paper examines the need for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to offer their clients new financial products.

As the microfinance revolution continues, increasing number of microfinance institutions (MFIs) are seeking to diversify the financial services they offer to their clients. In particular, there is a growing awareness that improved client-friendly saving facilities can provide not only an important financial service to the poor, but also that such facilities will actually provide more capital funds for the MFI than the compulsory savings systems that have been so prevalent. The present paper examines the need for MFIs to offer their clients new financial products. It is written on the basis of the experience of BURO Tangail, an MFI in Bangladesh working to provide flexible and responsive financial services to its clients. It operates in what is perhaps the most competitive market in the world of microfinance.