Youth-Inclusive Financial Services Case Study Series 2009 · since supported two other partners to...

YFS Case Study No. #14: Product Development for Girls: Girls’ Savings

and Financial Education

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Youth-Inclusive Financial Services Case Study Series 2009

Youth-Inclusive Financial

Services Linkage Program

(YFS-Link)

Case Study No. 14:

Product Development for Girls:

Girls’ Savings and Financial Education

Updated: September 2012

Author: Ben Shell, Women‟s World Banking (WWB)



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ABSTRACT Women‟s World Banking (WWB) is a microfinance support organization that works with

financial institutions across the developing world, including a network of 39 MFIs in 27

countries. This case study details how Women‟s World Banking helped its network member,

XacBank of Mongolia, design and roll out savings products and financial education programs for

girls ages 14 to 17. Through extensive market research, XacBank learned about the savings and

banking-related needs, desires, aspirations, constraints, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of

girls. These lessons were integrated into the design of the „Aspire‟ youth account and strongly

informed the development of XacBank‟s financial education programs and marketing strategies.

After careful testing and adaptation of the „Aspire‟ product, the bank now has over 8,000 Aspire

accounts, and the bank now offers the account to both girls and boys, as well as to youth up to

age 24, so adolescents can keep their account after starting college. These decisions made the

product more inclusive and helped ensure its long-term sustainability, while still maintaining the

focus on girls‟ empowerment and gender-sensitive marketing and communications. WWB has

since supported two other partners to design similar products at Banco Adopem in the

Dominican Republic and PEACE in Ethiopia. This updated case study shares results from the

roll-out of products at Xacbank and Adopem as well as impact results from the Xacbank

program.



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1. Institutional Background

About Women‟s World Banking

Women‟s World Banking is a global network comprised of 39 leading microfinance institutions

from 27 countries. The network members are diverse in geography, size and structure but united

in the firm belief that microfinance must remain committed to omen as clients, innovators and

leaders. WWB works with these institutions to design financial products and services that fulfill

women‟s needs while demonstrating the sustainability and social impact of serving women. By

providing innovative approaches that we can replicate and scale we can prove that investing in

women directly can be both profitable and generate positive social benefits. By investing in

women, we produce a multiplier effect on the well-being of their households and communities.

About XacBank

In 2001, XacBank (pronounced “hahs-bank”) was created as the result of a merger between two

of the largest non-bank financial institutions in Mongolia – X.A.C., (a Mongolian acronym for

“Golden Fund for Development”) started in 1998 under UNDP‟s MicroStart program, and

Goviin Ekhlel (Mongolian for “Gobi Start”), established by Mercy Corps in 1999 with support

from USAID. A model for transformation and expansion in the microfinance world, XacBank

now has branches in every province of the country and provides a full range of financial products

and services to individuals and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Mongolia, including

agent-based mobile phone banking. The bank‟s holding company, TenGer, recently made its

first foreign microfinance investment in Kyrgyzstan.

2. Project Background and Goals

In 2008, Women‟s World Banking commenced a project, funded by the Nike Foundation under

its “Girl Effect” initiative, to assist two of its network member microfinance institutions,

XacBank in Mongolia and Banco ADOPEM in the Dominican Republic, to design and roll out

savings products and financial education programs for girls and young women ages 7 to 24

(hereafter referred to simply as “girls” for the sake of brevity).

The project focuses on fundamental issues that have not yet been successfully addressed on a

large scale in developing countries – providing access to financial services and changing the

savings behavior of low-income girls. The central hypothesis of the project is that offering

savings products, financial education programs and marketing tailored to low-income girls and

their parents/guardians will provide the impetus needed for girls to achieve the following

milestones in knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors around savings: to understand the

importance of savings and consider it desirable; to learn saving strategies; to open formal savings

accounts which they control; to save; and to develop a savings habit.

Furthermore, it is hypothesized that these changes will have implications for the economic and

social empowerment of girls through building skills around and practicing asset accumulation,

risk management, goal setting and planning for the future. While in most developing countries



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girls are disadvantaged in many ways when compared to boys, WWB‟s experience shows that

they are also usually the primary household money managers of the future. This program will

help girls learn how to play this important role as well.

The project also seeks to demonstrate the strategic benefits to

financial institutions (FIs) of introducing such a program. By

working with girls, WWB expects that FIs will benefit by

creating future adult customers who are both more loyal and

more financially sophisticated (and thus better savers and

lower credit risks). The program will also enhance the FI‟s

brand as an institution dedicated to developing the country

through children, which, along with direct marketing through

girls and others, will improve the FI‟s ability to promote

products to girls‟ older family members and other adults.

3. Project Structure

In choosing to implement the Girls Savings and Financial

Education project together in Mongolia, WWB and XacBank

saw opportunities to build on the bank‟s existing focus on

children‟s savings and its corresponding child-friendly

reputation; to support a new strategic focus of the bank on

client education; and to strengthen the bank‟s marketing

department capabilities through working closely with WWB

on the product development process. XacBank‟s experience

with successfully mobilizing retail savings and its human

resources flexibility to manage such a project were also key

factors.

The project leveraged the skills and experience of Microfinance Opportunities (MFO), which

developed a global financial education curriculum for youth; was responsible for providing

technical input into the financial education content; managed monitoring and evaluation; and

who implemented a qualitative impact assessment of the project, whose endline findings are

detailed in a separate section. In addition, the Nike Foundation has provided expert guidance on

project evaluation and facilitating communication among other girls‟ savings project

implementers.

All WWB projects maintain a strong focus on market research, where WWB and its partners

carefully and thoroughly assess the project‟s operating environment with a particular focus on

the end-users. The needs, desires, aspirations, constraints, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of

these end-users, in this case Mongolian girls and their parents/guardians, are central to the design

of the product or service offering, and WWB maintains regular communication with the end-

users and other influential stakeholders throughout the product development process. WWB also

emphasizes a carefully designed and monitored pilot phase, where different approaches can be

tested and mistakes made without costly implications.

XacBank Snapshot

(As of 3.31.2012; USD mm;

Source: XacBank, MIX

Market, WWB)

Assets: 629

Loan portfolio: 414

Deposit portfolio: 266

ROE: 56.72%

ROA: 5.80%

Borrowers*: 75,736

Depositors*: 178,279

Service outlets: 75

Staff:

*As of 2010

971



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The project in Mongolia involves simultaneous development of three major components: savings

products, financial education campaigns and marketing strategies. The product development

lifecycle applies to all three components and is outlined below.

The following sections will focus on selected highlights of the product development process,

including key insights gained through market research, their implications to product design and

the results the product produced among targeted clients; the findings of the impact assessment

study conducted by MFO; and the results of the parallel youth savings program at Banco

ADOPEM in the Dominican Republic.

4. Client Research: Understanding How Girls Manage Money Research for the project began with thorough secondary research on existing youth financial

services programs run by deposit-taking institutions around the globe. Research on Mongolia

began in the summer of 2008 and was carried out by the project team, initially consisting of the

business development manager at XacBank, product development and market research experts at

WWB, and financial education experts from MFO. Through the secondary, industry, internal and

demand research conducted, the team gathered data on market size, literacy, child labor and

child-related laws, marriage, household and gender dynamics, vulnerable groups among female

youth, existing low-income youth education initiatives, computer and mobile phone use, banks

and savings products (particularly XacBank‟s existing children‟s savings product, called “Future

Millionaire”), personal money management and aspirations, and XacBank‟s current retail

savings performance and marketing strategies.

Initially, the team had envisioned that the project would involve a modified “Future Millionaire”

account complemented by a marketing strategy tailored to girls. The product is a long-term

savings account with a high interest rate that allows deposits but not withdrawals (without a

penalty) and that matures when a child turns 18. Future Millionaire accounts are opened by

adults in the name of children any time before the child turns 16, but the adult remains in sole

control of the account until it is closed early or it matures. This product constituted roughly one

quarter of total deposit accounts, and was considered strategically important by the bank.



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Therefore, when the team conducted client research in the fall, this product was an important

focus. The research was conducted using individual interviews and focus group discussions with

existing female Future Millionaire account holders, non-client girls and parents of both groups.

The focus groups were segmented by age and income level.

5. Determining Delivery Channels

During the prototype design stage, it became clear that reaching girls in a cost-effective manner

was going to require developing partnerships with experienced youth education professionals,

since the bank did not have that expertise in-house, and with institutions already interacting with

girls, since convenience was an important issue for both the

products and the financial education program. A learning visit

to Hatton National Bank in Sri Lanka, a commercial bank with

a large and sophisticated youth savings program, confirmed

the importance of working closely with schools to collect

deposits from children.

When the team gathered in Mongolia in early 2009 to prepare

for the pilot, addressing this issue was a priority. Thorough

research and interviews with potential partners were vital to

successful partner selection. The team chose a local NGO

staffed with veteran school teachers and extensive experience

implementing education projects through public schools to be

the primary partner. The team also wanted to make sure to

reach very poor girls who had dropped out of school, and thus

selected a second, community-based NGO that was already

successfully implementing a program to reach this more

vulnerable, out-of-school population.

Finding: Even though no

bank was then providing

services to girls under 16, the

team looked hard at the

relevant Mongolian laws and

found that children 14 and

over are permitted to open

accounts and withdraw money

independently.

Implication: XacBank was

the first bank in Mongolia to

offer accounts to 14 and 15

year-olds.

Finding: Client research indicated that girls whose parents had opened Future Millionaire

accounts for them were aware of the account but did not make transactions, were not aware

of parents doing so, and did not know their account balance. Additionally, while some girls

appreciated the withdrawal restriction feature, others thought that age 18 was too long to

wait to have access to the money, and still others wanted no restrictions at all. The team also

found that almost all girls both received some money that could be saved regularly and

understood the importance of doing so.

Implication: Girls were ready to save, but the team would have to design a new set of

products and a new marketing strategy to meet girls‟ needs and engage them in saving. For

the pilot, the team designed three products with and without withdrawal restrictions. The

market‟s collective desire for this range was confirmed during the pilot: the split between

accounts opened with and without restrictions was 60 / 40.



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The team devised three models to provide the most appealing and efficient offering to girls:

1) School-based: the first model involved providing financial education sessions in schools as

an extracurricular activity, using female university students as trainers. The primary NGO

partner established the program in schools, selected and trained the university students and

supervised the trainings.

2) Community-based: the second model provided financial education through the community-

based NGO working girls, using their own staff in their own existing training centers located

near markets where girls work.

3) Marketing-based: The third model was purely direct marketing and consisted of branch

staff making brief presentations of the product to groups of girls in nearby schools.

In the first two models, the financial education was comprised of eight sessions on savings,

banks, and budgeting, and was provided to groups of 20 girls each. A focused curriculum was

developed and the team engaged the primary NGO partner to adapt it for the Mongolian context.

The bank staff also made presentations on the product at key points during the education

program, and each club visited the pilot branch for an introduction and tour.

6. Pilot Outcomes and Challenges

After a three-month pilot, which included a full cycle of financial education, the team evaluated

the program and made the necessary modifications in preparation for the roll out. Developing a

monitoring plan with clear objectives and corresponding indicators was important for the team to

be able to learn from the pilot, as were interviews and focus groups conducted with pilot clients

Finding: At the point of the prototype design stage, bank staff was still uncertain about the

feasibility of the program. In addition, the bank‟s project manager had already changed twice

due to personal shuffles. However, individual interviews and focus groups held with girls,

parents and school teachers during the prototype testing confirmed clients‟ excitement and

desire for financial education and tailored savings products and helped reinforce the mutual

value propositions that existed. The exchange visit to Sri Lanka deepened convictions that

the program was both feasible and valuable.

Implication: The project team, including experienced bank staff, “bought into” the program.

They were, in turn, able to win the allocation of other, much-needed resources. The team

realized the importance of personal contact with the program to gain more support from key

stakeholders. Before the pilot, the team presented the program to a quarterly gathering of all

branch managers. The team also announced a contest for bank staff to come up with a brand

name; all senior managers participated. And during the pilot, the team made sure that all

executives observed financial education classes. Momentum for the program has continued

to grow.



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and stakeholders. The most important objective was to learn as much as possible in preparation

for the roll out.

The results were encouraging, but there remained work to be done. Pre- and post-tests for

financial education participants showed significant improvement in key self-reported knowledge,

attitudes and behaviors; the girls particularly appreciated the university student trainers and the

branch visit. The curriculum, however, proved to be more difficult for working girls due to their

lower levels of literacy. As a result, the community-based NGO was engaged to further adapt the

financial education for this market segment.

Furthermore, a combined account holder and financial education participant database revealed

that the pilot had achieved low product conversion rates (percentage of participants that opened

accounts) through all three delivery models. Financial education participants interviewed who

did not open accounts did, however, report saving more at home for shorter-term needs, and thus

asked parents for money less often.

The pilot also revealed that girls liked the design of the promotional materials and the name

chosen (which roughly translates to “Aspire”), confirming the results of XacBank‟s market

research. Originally, the bank had designed two youth debit cards, but after testing both, girls

responded overwhelmingly to the “cuter” design (featured below to the right) that reflects overall

design elements that are now used in all Aspire materials.

At the time the pilot was evaluated, 262 girls had participated in the financial education program,

and 80 girls had opened a total of 86 accounts, as some girls had both a time and a deposit

account. It became clear, however, that expanding the reach of Aspire would be helped by

incorporating support services that were tangential to financial services. Though preparing and

distributing information sheets for working girls on how to obtain identification cards is not a

typical practice when providing financial services, it has, nevertheless, empowered more girls to

access financial services that would otherwise remain out of reach.



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7. Pilot to Product: Rolling-out Aspire

From the inception of the Aspire project, WWB, XacBank and MFO had hypothesized that

changing the savings behavior of girls would require the simultaneous development of what they

believed were the three major components of the project: the savings products, financial

education campaigns, and marketing strategies. Consequently, documenting the roll out of the

Aspire project can best be summarized in three segments, each corresponding to one of the three

major components.

Savings Products After the initial product piloting of Aspire, XacBank decided to continue offering both time and

demand deposit savings accounts for girl clients aged 14 to 24. In order to offer youth-friendly

Finding: Market research uncovered numerous insights including:

Girls responded to incentives when opening and using their accounts.

Girls listened and responded to other girls, which opened a door for more effective

marketing.

Marketing savings products offered an opportunity to educate girls about financial

services.

Branch staff needed training to successfully address girls‟ unique challenges and needs.

Buy-in among teachers and parents helped encourage student participation.

Opening accounts was a lot more difficult than expected, as girls cited having accounts in

other banks; held a belief that they did not have enough money; and, for working girls,

cited lack of official ID as an obstacle.

Implication: Despite the overwhelmingly positive feedback the program received when the

prototype was tested before the pilot, more had to be done for girls to open accounts. For the

roll out, various modifications to the models were made:

New and improved incentives for opening accounts were tested and introduced.

The direct marketing model was improved, including involvement of school girls

themselves as direct marketers and more integration of the savings products into the

financial education component of the program.

Financial education messages were added to all marketing to improve effectiveness.

Special emphasis was placed on training for branch staff in communications and direct

marketing, and direct marketing toolkits developed for them.

Branch staff and schools decided to organize more presentations for girls as well as for

parents and teachers, as interviews uncovered how important these parties were to girls‟

participation in financial education and saving.

Handouts on how to obtain official IDs were produced and made available to all girls,

especially very low-income girls.



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products in ways that better reflect the realities of young people The Aspire savings products

have a 70% lower minimum balance requirement and a 50% lower fee on savings passbooks

than XacBank‟s adult accounts.

Girls can open an Aspire account with approximately US$2.50, which is also the minimum

balance requirement to maintain the account. The terms on time deposits vary anywhere from 3

to 24 months and offer interest rates between 10 and 14 percent, while demand deposit accounts

offer an interest rate of 6 percent. There is a small fee for withdrawing funds from both the

demand and time deposit accounts, and a more significant fee, roughly US$ 0.84, for closing the

account before it reaches maturity. Passbooks cost roughly US$0.40.

Financial Education Campaigns As schools became even more important to the model of integrated delivery of financial

education and product promotion, the Aspire project team decided they needed a way for the

bank to build close, long-term relationships with them. The team originally developed a

partnership model, drawing from both the Sri Lankan and local experience, that included three

levels of increasing commitment from both bank and school:

Model 1: Directly marketing in schools to students with financial education messages

integrated into marketing.

Model 2: Directly marketing in schools to students and providing facilitated financial

education courses.

Model 3: Directly marketing in schools to students, providing more facilitated financial

education courses and sponsoring a classroom in the school.

Rolling out the models of partnership, however, revealed that a three-tiered partnership model

was too complicated. The team has since simplified their partnerships with schools by focusing

on Model 2: both directly marketing to schools and providing some facilitated financial

education courses. The simplification has allowed XacBank to focus more closely on two to

three schools per branch, providing a more mutually beneficial arrangement for schools, students

and the bank.

Marketing Strategies To effectively communicate with girls, XacBank designed and tested

promotional materials to ensure their relevance to younger clients. The bank

then launched a marketing campaign that included a variety of mediums for

reaching out to girls and partners. The bank used advertisements on

television, radio and other mass media outlets, including incorporating on-

line advertisements on websites popular with girls and a branded mobile

savings application to help raise awareness for Aspire. Reflecting the ever

increasing sophistication of XacBank and the Aspire project, a system of

branded gift incentives was devised for higher balance savers with time

deposit accounts.

As schools began playing a larger role in reaching youth, XacBank began sponsoring events and

combining financial education with product presentations to students, and even created a Student

Aspire Logo



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Banker program, in which leading students helped XacBank organize financial education events

at school and functioned as sales representatives for Aspire.

8. Impact Assessment Study (MFO) – Findings

In September 2011, Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) completed its endline impact assessment

study, “Savings and Financial Education for Girls in Mongolia”1, based on results from baseline

and endline research conducted approximately 18 months apart. The objective of the study was

to assess the impact of XacBank‟s youth savings program on girls‟ knowledge, skills, and

attitudes (KSAs) and behavior around financial management and savings.

Key findings include the following:

Impact on Girls

Financial education makes a difference on savings: “Savings Plus” girls (those who

received financial education and opened a youth savings account) saved more on average

(4 times more) than “Savings Only” girls (those who only opened a youth savings

account) and more on average (2.5 times more) than Comparison girls (those who neither

opened an account nor received financial education).

Enhanced capacity: “Savings Only” and “Savings Plus” girls showed significant gains in

financial knowledge, skills, and attitudes compared to girls who did not (Comparison

girls).

Self-esteem enhanced: “Savings Only” and “Savings Plus” girls reported a sense of pride

in managing financial affairs and a greater desire for financial autonomy. The praise and

encouragement they received from their parents was very important to them. Also,

“Savings Plus” girls developed social networks and teamwork skills as a result of

participating in the financial education sessions.

1 http://microfinanceopportunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WWB-Mongolia-Impact-Assessment-Endline.pdf

Finding: Parents‟ understanding and excitement is vital for the success of girl savers; full

cooperation and support from parents and teachers helps build excitement for the product.

Implications: XacBank‟s presence in schools has helped it reach more girl savers, but has

also exposed capacity gaps. While combining product presentation and financial education

has resulted in low-cost school events, other effective school based programs have exposed

the need for professional development among bank staff in guiding and supporting Student

Bankers.

http://microfinanceopportunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WWB-Mongolia-Impact-Assessment-Endline.pdf



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Savings seen as important . . . : Almost all girls who received a savings account along

with or without financial education viewed savings as important.

. . . but disconnected from big picture: Few of the girls developed a formal savings plan

linked to life goals. This may be attributable to a need for better financial education, for

better savings product design, for a longer time horizon for the study, to the age of the

study subjects, or to a combination of those factors.

Increased control: “Savings Only” and “Savings Plus” girls had more control over their

savings than Comparison girls, whose parents had more of a role.

Impact on Financial Institution

For the bank, a gateway product: Strong commitment to the youth accounts, which were

viewed as a loss leader but one that will help secure a base of lifelong, loyal customers

over a long-term time horizon.

Positive view of XacBank: Girls who opened Temuulel accounts had a much more

positive view of XacBank by the endline than they had had at the baseline; many vowed

to stay with XacBank after they reached adulthood.

Increased parental awareness of XacBank products: Increase in overall awareness of

XacBank and its products to the parents of the girls.

. . . but low product uptake among parents: Despite exposure to XacBank product

offerings, uptake among parents of adult savings products was not as strong as hoped.

Expanded offer to boys: XacBank expanded the program to boys when initial uptake

projections fell short.

Impact on Peers / Community

Beneficial “spillover” effect confirmed: Girls shared their experiences with peers,

family, and community and encouraged peers to open savings accounts as well.

Potential policy implications: XacBank opened negotiations with Ministry of Education

to formalize financial education into school curricula.

9. Youth Savings Program at Banco ADOPEM (DR)

While the youth savings program development was underway in Mongolia, WWB was also

assisting its network member, Banco ADOPEM in the Dominican Republic, to develop its youth

savings program under the same “Girl Effect” initiative funded by the Nike Foundation.

As a result of comprehensive market research conducted in the Domininan Republic, as well as

emerging lessons learned in Mongolia, Banco ADOPEM and WWB designed a youth savings

product named “Mía” (“Mine”) for youth ages 7-24. The product was originally only offered to

girls, but the bank later made a business decision to offer the product to boys as well, similar to

XacBank. However, while XacBank only offered Aspire to an age segment that did not require a

guardian, Banco ADOPEM decided to also segment Mía by age. For youth ages 7-15, the

minimum opening balance is DOP 100 (USD$2.50) and a guardian is required, while the

minimum opening balance for youth ages 16-24 is DOP 200 (US$5) and a guardian is not

required.



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Banco ADOPEM also launched youth-friendly marketing strategies, as with XacBank, including

marketing materials with attractive imagery and messaging; colorful passbooks; incentive

schemes; and welcoming branch layouts. Banco ADOPEM also incorporated Mía “corners” that

displayed colorful message boards with information and photos about Mía.

The format of the financial education curriculum for youth in the Dominican Republic, also

developed by MFO, was initially the same as in Mongolia – eight sessions on savings, banks,

and budgeting. However, the format was eventually reduced to three sessions, as managing and

implementing a financial education program in the Dominican Republic proved more

challenging and expensive than in Mongolia. Given these challenges to reaching scale with the

classroom financial education format, Banco ADOPEM has also implemented additional

financial education interventions, including interactive Jeopardy-like games to test financial

knowledge as well as the incorporation of savings plans that are developed and monitored during

in-branch transactions.

10. Conclusion

Since launching the pilot in March 2009, XacBank has opened close to 8,000 Aspire accounts.

Careful adaptations after the pilot helped to significantly increase the number of savings

accounts, as well as increase girls‟ participation in financial education campaigns. In addition,

the average savings balance has doubled from US$37 (in August 2010) to US$74 (as of March

2012). Meanwhile, XacBank continues to pursue financial education and has reached over

18,000 girls. The Aspire program has grown to include all XacBank branches and also to

include boys – marketing was adapted to target boys offering the same youth savings product

with the same terms that were successful with girls, but with different passbooks and adapted

marketing materials.

Since its pilot in January 2010, Banco ADOPEM has opened over 12,000 Mía accounts for girls

and boys, with an average savings balance of USD$16, and over 5,000 youth have participated in

financial education. Also, as of December 2011, the Mía youth savings program has been rolled

out to all of Banco ADOPEM‟s branches across the country.

Based on the lessons learned in Mongolia and the Dominican Republic, Women‟s World

Banking has partnered with PEACE MFI, its network member microfinance institution in

Ethiopia, to deliver financial education and savings products to youth, as part of YouthStart, a

UNCDF initiative established in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation that aims to

increase access to financial services for low-income youth in sub-Saharan Africa. PEACE MFI is

a microfinance institution founded in November 1999 and has a network of 19 branches across

Ethiopia. After conducting in-depth market research and designing product prototypes, WWB

and PEACE MFI developed the Lenege or “For Tomorrow” youth savings program, which was

launched in December 2011. This program consists of a youth-controlled savings account for

semi-urban, in-school and out-of-school youth, as well as a complementary, practical financial

education curriculum delivered by branch staff to in-school and out-of-school youth.

The success of the youth savings program in Mongolia is the result of continuous evaluations,

product tweaks, ongoing market research from prototype through product roll out, and the

commitment of bank personnel in supporting and marketing the youth savings program. Whether



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learning to partner with NGOs to extend financial products to girls outside the influence of

schools, or incorporating market tested design concepts and incentives to encourage larger

balance savers, XacBank has succeeded by carefully researching these issues and testing and

evaluating them for effectiveness. The team is encouraged by what it has achieved so far and is

optimistic about the evolving program‟s ability to change the knowledge, skills, attitudes,

behaviors and ultimately the savings habits of Mongolian girls and boys. In doing so it has

created a sustainable program that is beneficial to both XacBank and its youth clients.

SUMMARY KEYS TO PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS IN MONGOLIA

Buy-in of key bank personnel, achieved through learning visit and personal

exposure to girls

In-depth research and continuous stakeholder feedback

Flexible, inclusive and simple product offering

Engaging outside expertise (NGOs) when needed

A pilot with clear learning objectives and a robust monitoring plan

Developing strong, mutually-beneficial partnerships to reach clients

Integrating marketing and financial education delivery and content

Developing efficient direct marketing strategies



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ANNEX 1: BIBLIOGRAPHY OF YFS CASE STUDY SERIES

1. Abeywickrema, C. (2009, September). The role of the Hatton National Bank in creating access to financial services for youth in

Sri Lanka. Hatton National Bank. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

Hatton National Bank (HNB), a prominent commercial bank in Sri Lanka, has been committed to providing financial services in rural

areas and to more vulnerable populations for years. More recently, HNB has begun to focus on serving youth in two key ways: 1)

establishing Student Banking Centers in schools 2) targeting youth in rural areas in their village microfinance programs to receive both

financial and non-financial services. This case study examines key methodologies to effectively serving youth with financial services

through a commercial lending model.

2. Ahammed, I. (2009, September). A case study on financial services for street children. Padakhep. Accessible at:

http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

Padakhep is a non-government organization (NGO) in Bangladesh that strives to reach street children through an integrated approach.

This case study details the innovative “Introduction of Financial Services” program which provides both credit and savings services to

Dhaka street kids to encourage them to initiate income generating activities of their own. A key lesson that emerged was that flexible

terms and conditions of financial products are essential for working with an extremely vulnerable target population like urban street

children.

3. Austrian, K. & Ngurukie, C. (2009, September). Safe and smart savings products for vulnerable adolescent girls in Kenya &

Uganda. Population Council & MicroSave Consulting Ltd.

Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

This case study details the unique partnership between Population Council, a research-focused NGO, and MicroSave, a consulting firm,

to develop and deliver critical financial services to adolescent girls by partnering with four financial institutions in Kenya. This case

study shows that by offering girls secure savings products they can mitigate some of the hardships they endure as well as encourage

positive savings habits, thereby increasing their economic stability as they transition to adulthood.

4. Chandani, T. & Twamuhabwa, W. (2009, September). A partnership to offer educational loans to nursing students in Uganda.

Banyan Global & Equity Bank. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

Equity Bank-Uganda and Banyan Global have successfully partnered in Uganda to develop an innovative loan product that links

workforce development in the health sector with microfinance. This case study describes the key elements of success of their pilot to

bring education loans to aspiring nurses between the ages of 17 and 24. Equity Bank proves that by approaching youth who are formally

affiliated with a training institution can be critical to alleviating risk, gaining trust and achieving market share.

5. Kashfi, F. (2009, September). Youth financial services: The case of BRAC and the adolescent girls of Bangladesh. BRAC.

Accessible at: http://www.cyesnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Case%20Study%20on%20BRAC%20and%20Youth.pdf

Ten years after beginning adolescent-focused initiatives in Bangladesh, BRAC realized that financial independence can play a key role in

empowering adolescent girls further. This case study focuses on the Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA), which offers both

credit and savings services to adolescent girls. Findings indicate that using a holistic approach to financial service delivery customized to

the needs of adolescents will equip the girls to invest better and take higher loans on average.

6. Gepaya, L.Y. (2009, September). Youth inclusive financial services: Marketing and delivery is what matters. Panabo Multi-

Purpose Cooperative. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

The Panabo Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PMPC) is a cooperative based in the Philippines and a part of the global World Council of

Credit Unions (WOCCU) network. This case study describes how PMPC discovered that partnerships with schools can be an effective

form of growing membership, promoting a culture of savings at a young age, and delivering much-needed financial services to

underserved youth populations.

7. Harnest, J. & Neilson, E. (2009, September). Microfinance and “the next generation” The FINCA Aflatoun curriculum

implemented in an MFI setting. Finca Peru & Aflatoun. Accessible at:


Aflatoun, an organization committed to social development and financial literacy for children between the ages of 6-14, has begun

partnering with select microfinance institutions (MFIs) to offer its curricula to clients‟ children. This case study discusses Aflatoun‟s

work with FINCA Peru detailing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges associated with implementing Aflatoun

curricula in a non-formal school setting with children of microfinance beneficiaries. Findings from this project indicate that children who

consistently attend classes have demonstrated a strong willingness to save.





http://www.cyesnetwork.org/sites/default/files/Case%20Study%20on%20BRAC%20and%20Youth.pdf





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8. Denomy, J. (2009, September). MEDA works with youth: YouthInvest. Mennonite Economic Development Associates.


This case study provides an overview of MEDA‟s work on increasing youth access to financial services, particularly through

YouthInvest in Egypt and Morocco. Detailed in this case study, YouthInvest was designed with a strong market research component, the

results of which are crucial to designing successful financial and non-financial services for youth.

9. Massie, J.(2009, September). Using innovative partnerships and market research to link financial education and savings

products for girls. MicroFinance Opportunities. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

Microfinance Opportunities working with Savings and Economic Empowerment grantees to develop financial literacy modules that will

be closely linked to their savings products. For the first time, market research is informing both the design of financial education and

financial products for young women. This effort is carried out through innovative partnerships between MFO, youth service

organizations, and financial institutions. This case study provides an overview of these partnerships and how they conduct market

research, the integral role of these results in designing of appropriate savings products for youth.

10. Nazneen, S. (2009, September). Save the Children’s youth financial services: Adolescent girls project. Save the Children.


This case study describes the Kishoree Kontha (Adolescent Girls‟ Voices) Project implemented by Save the Children in 5 sub-districts of

southern Bangladesh. The goal of this intervention is to link savings schemes with other non-financial services, such as health and

education, to allow rural adolescent girls to build their human, social and economic assets. Additionally, this case study details how Save

the Children dealt with traditional gender roles, as adolescent girls are not decision-makers, through intense community outreach and

sensitization.

11. Cilimkovic, S. & Jahic, S. (2009, September). Youth inclusive financial services: A case study from Bosnia. Partner

Microcredit Foundation. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

Partner Microcredit Foundation is a non-profit microfinance institution in Bosnia Herzogovina that recently piloted a youth loan product.

The goal of this youth program was to increase self-employment opportunities for young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina by providing

access to loan capital in addition to market-oriented business training and mentorship services for youth clients. This case study describes

in extensive detail the experience of Partner MK in conducting market, research, designing a specialized youth loan product, and the

preliminary outcomes and lessons learned of this program.

12. Schiller, J. (2009, September). Making financial services and business skills development available to African children and

youth: Accomplishments and limitations of research and monitoring. Plan International. Accessible at:


This case study examines Plan International‟s situation analysis research carried out in Senegal, Niger and Sierra Leone. This project

identifies active youth groups and presents a profile of youth and their activities and their general socio-economic conditions in each

locality. This project focuses on the Village Savings and Loan (VSL) program in the three countries. The associations formed are

sustainable and replicable, and the local implementing partner institutions have been effective and successful in all three program

countries Overall, youth‟s response has encouraged the project to believe that dramatic upscale is possible.

13. Storm-Swire, L. (2009, September). Exploring youth financial services: The case of ProMujer in Bolivia. ProMujer.


Pro Mujer is an international women‟s development and microfinance organization that alleviates poverty in Latin America by providing

financial services, healthcare and training to poor women entrepreneurs. This case study details the process of developing a group-based

loan product targeted at youth, with results indicating that significant investment in proper market research, product development, staff

and infrastructure is required to determine the differing needs of this heterogeneous market.

14. Shell, B. (2009, September, updated 2012, September). Product development for girls: Girls’ savings and financial education.

Women’s World Banking. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

This case study examines how Women‟s World Banking has helped two of its network members, XacBank of Mongolia and Banco

ADOPEM in the Dominican Republic, design and roll out savings products and financial education programs for girls and young

woman ages 7-24. WWB found that reaching girls cost-effectively required developing strategic partnerships – with experienced youth

education professionals, since the bank did not have that expertise in-house, and with institutions already interacting with girls, since

convenience is an important issue for both the products and the financial education program.










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15. Making Cents International and Equity Bank LTD. (2012, February). Youth-Inclusive Financial Services: Scaling Up and

Mobile Banking. Equity Bank. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

This case study explores the experience of Equity Bank, a commercial bank based in Nairobi, Kenya and the largest African majority

owned company in East and Central Africa with a base of over 7.15 million customers. In Equity Bank‟s experience the business and

social case are strong for youth-inclusive financial services as its youth product grew by 216% from December 2008 through December

2011. Considering the extent of Kenya‟s growing youth population, Equity has had to learn to quickly scale-up its financial and non-

financial services through a variety of innovative and youth oriented strategies, including increase of and training for staff and mobile

banking service delivery channels.

16 Al-Waell, A. and Storm, L. (2011, March). First Middle Eastern Microfinance Bank Puts Youth First. Al-Amal Microfinance

Bank. Accessible at: http://www.makingcents.com/products_services/resources.php

A pioneer in Islamic microfinance, Al-Amal Microfinance Bank (Al-Amal) was established in October 2008 as the first microfinance

bank in Yemen. Dedicated to providing poor micro-entrepreneurs with access to financial services, Al-Amal targets youth and women

with microcredit, savings, and insurance, among other services. Through slight adaptations to its product offerings, including collateral

requirements and minimum balances, Al-Amal has quickly grown its reach to thousands of Yemeni youth. In this case study, Al-Amal

discusses techniques for providing young people with appropriate financial services, including staff training and youth-friendly

marketing and delivery channels.



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