Savings Mobilization: The Forgotten Half of Rural Finance

摘要

This paper presents four arguments that savings mobilization should be an essential part of rural finance projects in developing countries: (1) income distribution, (2) resource allocation, (3) viability of financial institutions; and (4) appropriate incentives for projects. The paper then describes the recent AID-BANCOOP project in Peru which demonstrates that savings can in fact be mobilized in rural areas of developing countries and which also indicates some of the crucial factors in successful savings mobilization: adequately high interest rates on deposits, good service for depositors, incentives for employees, confidence in the institution, and effective savings mobilization campaigns. Finally, the experience of credit unions in Peru is used to show what happens to financial institutions that do not pay adequate attention to savings mobilization and what problems, especially with respect to incentives, can be anticipated in implementing savings mobilization projects.