The journey
The journey
2000 TO DATE
2000-2008 Research Series 'Perspectives'
WSBI's research series 'Perspectives' lay out global barriers to access to finance and explain how the savings and retail banking network helps overcome them
Main Achievement:
1.3billion accounts
were offered globally through the WSBI network at the time
WSBI-ESBG members become signatories to the UN Global Compact
2008 - Doubling Savings Accounts programme
A seven-year global partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to drive massive outreach in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Main Achievement:
4.5million
Low-income savers reached
Over30,000
Village groups linked up to FSPs through mobile technology
2,250
Service points connected digitally
2015 - Coalition partner to UFA 2020
WSBI becomes a coalition partner of the World Bank Group’s Universal Financial Access Agenda (UFA 2020) committing to 400 million new transaction accounts through the WSBI network.
Main achievements
430million clients
across the WSBI-ESBG network have been enabled to transact (and make use of other financial services) within 5 years. adding more than 400 million transaction accounts
2016 – Launch of Scale2Save
Scale2Save starts operating as a six-year partnership with the Mastercard Foundation in six countries in Africa to drive customer centric solutions for 1 million customers and becomes a partner in the Mastercard Foundation Savings Learning Lab led by Itad.
Main achievements
1.3million
• Women, youth and farmers benefit from customer centric solutions and can make better use of financial services and, savings in particular
• 12 unique business models tested with a broad range of financial services, viability of low balance savings proven
• Toolkit development for segmented market analysis and data analysis
• Change management coaching
• Launch of agricultural platforms for financial and non-financial farm services and shared agent networks,
• 100+ publications, including sector and customer research on resilience building measures for women and youth
• Collaboration with wide array of national sector players (Financial sector APEX bodies, Central Banks, FSDs and other market shapers)
2022-Coalition Partner to the We-Fi Code
WSBI becomes a coalition partner of the We-Fi Code, housed by the World Bank. The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative Code is a commitment by FSPs, regulators, development banks, and other financial ecosystem players to work together to collect data driven evidence about the barriers faced by women in enterprises and subsequently increase funding provided to women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (WMSMEs) around the world, so that they can grow and add value to the economy and their communities
2023 – Launch of Scale2Save Development Finance Practice
Building on the learning from three major initiatives (Doubling Savings Accounts, Savings at the Frontier and Scale2Save), Scale2Save becomes a standalone brand supporting the WSBI network of socially committed partner banks with development finance and technical assistance in their journey to contributing to job creation and business growth, financial and climate resilience, adaptive solutions to cope with shocks, as well as to the empowerment of the most vulnerable customer groups such as women and youth
