worthiness thereby improving the groups’ chance of accessing formal financial institutions; and, helping develop banking skills and operational procedures.
B. Build upon the success of the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) by broadening its business scope beyond being a pure agricultural bank and towards becoming a rural development bank that provides credit and services to low-income rural consumers, village funds, and all types of cooperatives.
The survey found that low-income consumers with higher repayment ability than grass-root consumers can benefit from better access to established government- owned specialized financial institutions (SFIs) such as the BAAC. With more tailored financial products and flexible means in providing financial services to economically viable low-income consumers,6 the BAAC can potentially build upon their achievements and at the same time earn profitable returns from servicing this customer group.
Urban Low-income
A. Establish market-based incentives for financial institutions to offer services, especially credit and advisory services, to low-income consumers. This recommendation centers on the development of new business models and tools that will allow state-own and private commercial banks to gainfully provide financial services to low-income segments.
South Africa’s Standard Bank is an example of how a commercial bank can use technology to profitably provide financial services to urban low-income users.7 Standard Bank is one of the top commercial banks in South Africa to provide financial services to the urban low-income segment through its affiliate called E- Bank.
E-Bank overcame the problem of high cost associated with servicing low- income8 by employing innovative and low-cost delivery channels such as ATMs. E-Banks established approximately 100 user-friendly service centers conveniently located in shopping centers and main city thorough ways, which contained 2-4 ATMs and 2-3 staff members whose only tasks were to welcome and assist customers’ ATM usage. Without any back office functions, E-Bank’s transaction cost fell further by approximately 30-40 percent.
6 Survey results showed that consumers want the option to borrow small size loans with flexible repayment schedule, and the ability to borrow emergency loans. 7 McAndrews, James and Paulson, Jo Ann “Financial Services for the Urban Poor: South Africa’s E Plan,” World Bank working paper, 1999 and Moore, David “Financial Services for Everyone,” McKinsey Quarterly, 2002. 8 Low-income users have small average account balance, yet would frequently visit commercial banks to perform minor transactions, thereby increasing cost burdens on the servicing commercial bank.