CGAP and IDEO.org Collaborate to Re-bank Low-Income Mexicans and
Bring a Savings Product to Market
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 22
million households in Mexico are
middle and low income. Only half of them have a bank account. So
CGAP brought in IDEO.org, the non-profit arm of the California design firm known for pioneering
human-centered design to work with Bancomer, one of Mexico's largest banks, to come up with a
product that would open the market to low-income savers.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121113/DC12281)
(Logo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110412/MM81963LOGO)
Building on earlier CGAP research into the low income market in
Mexico (watch the video or read
the blog post), CGAP and IDEO conducted in-depth interviews to
better understand how poor Mexicans manage their money. The
research showed that many in this segment preferred informal to
formal savings mechanisms. Distrust of banks was often at the root
of the issue. The CGAP/IDEO team learned that for any formal
product to be successful in the market and sustainable for the
bank, it would need to build on the informal tools Mexicans were
already using to offer something better.
Bancarizacion, a new video produced by CGAP, documents
the process of developing two new savings products and the main
challenges the team encountered: getting the concepts to market and
convincing a big bank to adjust its thinking and approach to
developing products that can serve the needs of poor and low income
clients.
"It is actually the process of pushing a bank to experiment and
understand better the segments it wishes to serve," says
Xavier Faz of CGAP. "Along the way,
learning is generated for the whole market.
Watch Bancarizacion on
CGAP.org.
Contact: Erin Scronce,
escronce@worldbank.org
SOURCE CGAP