11 Principles: Designing Financial Services for the Poor

Kabul: money changer and credit cards
 

The Institute for Money, Tecnhology and Financial Inclusion has generated a list of 11 Design Principles for Financial Services for the Poor, drawn from a cohort of 20+ research projects around the world:

  • 1 &#187 Design for social obligation
  • 2 &#187Design for social rank
  • 3 &#187 Flexibility with sanctions
  • 4 &#187 Structured illiquidity
  • 5 &#187 Change the iconography, design with local values
  • 6 &#187 Design for convertibility
  • 7 &#187 Calculate convertibility
  • 8 &#187 Design for relative volume, not increment
  • 9 &#187 Lucky Numbers
  • 10 &#187 Tranches and Tiers
  • 11 &#187 Design for Cyclical Events

Download the principles here.

The IMTFI is funded, in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in 2010 is set to more than double the number of projects around the globe. Full disclosure: I’m on the IMTFI external advisory board.

07 Feb 2010