Rani Deshpande

Paying Attention to the Financial Needs of Youth

Despite growing interest in youth financial services as a means to financial inclusion, until recently there has been precious little publicly available information on what youth in developing countries want from financial institutions.

Country-Level Savings Assessment Tool

This Technical Guide explains the areas of analysis covered in a CLSA, the methodology used, and how the CLSA can be tailored to meet the needs of the commissioning agency.

The True Cost of Deposit Mobilization

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) seem to be of two minds about the cost of mobilizing savings. In a recent CGAP study, the majority of institutions interviewed perceived deposits as the cheapest form of funding available, as well as stable, plentiful, and a valuable service to clients.

MFI Capital Structure Decision Making: A Call for Greater Awareness

This Brief summarizes the study's findings and makes recommendations about ways we can work toward optimizing MFI balance sheets.

Safe and Accessible: Bringing Poor Savers Into the Financial System

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, many financial institution managers and policy makers do not believe poor people save money. They tend to assume that poor people are “too poor to save,” that they prefer to consume rather than save excess income, or that when they do save it is only to access a loan.