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Microcredit is often recognised by the broader term microfinance, which is understood to be the provision of small-scale financial products and services targeted to low income segments of the population, who do not have access to formal financial circuits. It is unique among economic development initiatives because it has the ability to deliver social benefits on an ongoing, permanent basis and on a large scale.

Savings banks’ primary concern is to mobilise domestic resources and, where possible, invest these in the local economy. As proximity banks, savings banks have essential assets that make them ideally equipped to provide microfinance services. They are accessible because of their geographic proximity given their wide spread branch networks and nation wide coverage. Compared to other formal financial institutions they also tend to have relatively low requirements for accessing their services (such as low minimum balances for savings accounts).

WSBI member savings banks are intensifying their efforts in contribute to more inclusive financial systems. The WSBI welcomes the recognition of policymakers that formal financial institutions can play a vital role in massifying microfinance services, and in broadening and deepening financial systems. WSBI advocates an enabling environment for these institutions, and domestic retail banks in particular, to engage further in microfinance in order to meet the challenges of improving access to finance for all. The WSBI will be pursuing its objectives throughout the year 2005.

For further information, visit

• www.yearofmicrocredit.com
• Calendar of WSBI actions in support of UN Year of Microcredit 2005
• WSBI supports UN International Year of Microcredit 2005
• WSBI Mircrofinance Providers
• WSBI/World Bank Access to Finance Conference Brussels, 28-29 October 2004
• WSBI Access to Finance Resolution Brussels, 27 October 2004 (GB, FR, ES)
• Building a Successful International Year of Microcredit. UNCDF presentation at the WSBI 11th General Assembly
• Access to Finance, Measuring the Contribution of Savings Banks - Stephen Peachey and Alan Roe, Oxford Policy Management - September 2005
  
  This is the second main study with which the WSBI is contributing to the global debate on access to finance, especially in the 2005 UN Year of Microcredit. This study draws on data from WSBI members and is structured around three key sets of questions where savings banks can contribute most to the debate on how much access there is and why the level of access differs across countries: The first question relates to how big is the market for accessible finance and how significant savings banks are in that market? It was found that from the 1.4 billion accessible accounts available worldwide, savings banks contribute with 1.1 billion or more than three quarters. Because the savings bank data covers not only deposits but also credits and microcredits, a second set of questions address how savings banks work and interact with other providers in the market. The third set of questions covers the terms (geographic/socio-economic/ affordability dimensions) on which savings banks are involved and opens up the debate about price, regulatory and other non-price barriers to access. The report ends with a summary of the implications of the new findings for the savings bank industry.
  
  To receive a free PDF copy of the report, please send an e-mail with your contact details expressing the reason for your interest in this study to iinfo@savings-banks.com
  Access to Finance - A study for the WSBI - Stephen Peachey and Alan Roe, Oxford Policy Management - October 2004
  
  The study gives an overview of the importance of access to finance and records the main obstacles to access in different parts of the world. It also attempts to create a coherent framework for analysing the available data on access and to link this through to indicators of wider economic development. Having surveyed the nature and dimensions of access (or lack of it), the paper goes on to review public and banking sector initiatives to improve access to finance and develop a policy agenda for both the financial institutions that must deliver access and the public sector that must create the right environment for doing so. Finally the critical role of proximity banks in the provision of financial services to all strata of the population in urban and more remote areas has been located within the broader framework of analysis
  
  To receive a free PDF copy of the report, please send an e-mail with your contact details expressing the reason for your interest in this study to info@savings-banks.com
• Access to Finance Conference Proceedings, A conference co-organised by the WSBI and the World Bank.
  In October 2004, the World Savings Banks Institute and the World Bank co-organised the ‘Access to Finance Conference’ which brought together more than 300 delegates from close to 50 countries, including practitioners, policymakers and academics, in order to address for the first time the issues of access to financial services both in the developing and the developed world.
• The Provision of Microfinance Services by Savings Banks. Selected experiences from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
  This paper selects six examples from across the developing world to highlight savings banks’ activity in microfinance. These six examples, however, are just that – examples of a much wider commitment from savings banks to extend access to affordable financial services to as many people and enterprises as possible.