07 April 2010: In virtually every country in the world, the existing supply of savings services falls short of the demand from low-income populations. The poor need more and better access to savings accounts.

In some countries, there is a growing sector of unregulated microcredit organizations that are well positioned and motivated to offer those services, but are not yet licensed to do so. Regulators in these countries can enable microcredit organizations to integrate into the financial system as financial intermediaries with a tiered, risk-based approach to licensing, regulating and supervising savings-based microfinance.

The AFI policy note on formalizing microsavings provides a tiered approach to regulating intermediation. It gives an overview of the issue, how it works and addresses a number of key policy questions. It also highlights the experiences of several countries that have demonstrated success in developing innovative solutions to formalize microsavings and gives an overview of complementary and relevant reading material.