Design for financial empowerment

Disruptive solutions bringing value to the bottom of the pyramid

M-PESA service point and userThe Index Project

M-PESA

The app that changed banking in Africa

Keep the Change with dollar billThe Index Project

According to the World Bank, there are still 2.1 billion people that don’t have access to banking facilities. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t just affect those in developing economies. There are still 9 million unbanked American households that sit on the periphery of the economic system.

M-PESAThe Index Project

In 2007, following a student software development project from Kenya, Safaricom launched a mobile-based payment and money transfer service, known as M-PESA. M for mobile and “PESA” for Swahili currency.

M-PESA app and cashThe Index Project

M-PESA is a fast, secure and convenient way to transfer money via text. Users with a national ID card or passport can deposit, withdraw or transfer money without needing to visit a bank.

M-PESA customersThe Index Project

The system has been lauded for its social value; offering opportunities for small businesses and playing a significant role in reducing poverty.

M-PESA plantation posterThe Index Project

Coffee growers can promptly pay their field workers; urban dwellers regularly send money home to their rural families, and even hospitals have sent money to patients in remote areas to pay their bus fare to hospital.

M-PESA travel posterThe Index Project

Since its inception, the M-PESA system has grown to more than 25 million users in Kenya alone. And has since been welcomed in Tanzania, India, Afghanistan, Albania and Romania.

M-PESA videoThe Index Project

To date, the system has processed around 6 billion transactions including international transfers, loans and health provisions.

Keep the Change user counting moneyThe Index Project

Keep the Change

The small-change campaign that made a big difference

Bank of America in black and whiteThe Index Project

In 2004, Bank of America asked design firm IDEO to come up with an idea to attract more customers. Instead of starting inside the walls of Bank of America headquarters, IDEO ventured into the field to observe real people's relationships with money.

Keep the ChangeThe Index Project

During their ethnographic research on their targeted customers: boomer-age women with children. IDEO made an intriguing observation. These women were rounding up all of their household transactions to make addition easier, which added a buffer in their bank accounts.

Keep the Change illustationsThe Index Project

Based on this behaviour, IDEO developed a service called Keep The Change. When a purchase is made using a Bank of America Visa debit card, the cost is rounded up to the nearest dollar and the difference from the customer’s checking account is added into her savings account.

Keep the Change in coin jarThe Index Project

This bit of financial wizardry also solved another problem: low savings rates among the members of the target demographic.

Bank of AmericaThe Index Project

The campaign proved so popular that it drew more than 2.5 million customers in its first year, including 700,000 new checking accounts and one million new savings accounts for the bank.

Bitcoin gold coinsThe Index Project

Bitcoin

The decentralised digital currency that started a revolution

Bitcoin x crypto valueThe Index Project

Bitcoin has been one of the world’s most disruptive technologies. It’s turned industries upside down, killed others and given life to numerous invaluable services. While the crypto-currency has brought its fair share of challenges, it's also brought great opportunity.

Bitcoin on black surfaceThe Index Project

Bitcoin, as the first of its kind, is a revolutionary payment network with global accessibility. The decentralised form of digital payment puts the power back in the users’ hands, providing increased freedom from banks and governments.

Bitcoin phone appThe Index Project

The democratic tool allows anyone, anywhere, to control their own money using innovative peer-to-peer technology. End-users can pay for all kinds of goods and services with bitcoin and, in turn, be paid for anything they provide.

Bitcoin eyesThe Index Project

Bitcoin evens the playing field between currency conversion rates, commission fees and transfer limitations that come into play with traditional monetary systems. A unique digital signature protects every exchange so that there's little risk of fraud, chargebacks or identity theft.

Common Collection contextThe Index Project

One significant solution enabled by Bitcoin is CommonCollection: a social site for global peer-to-peer giving.

Bitcoin x Common Collection on ipadThe Index Project

CommonCollection connects people directly, allowing donations to be instantly transferred from one person to another. People with an urge to help can browse through cases on CommonCollection and read individual stories, which have been uploaded by people in need.

Common Collection contextThe Index Project

Once the givers are ready to donate, they scan a code with their mobile device, decide the amount they want to give and click send. Within a few minutes, the recipient is notified and can use the donation for its intended purpose.

Bitcoin videoThe Index Project

AKI Kit wooden boxThe Index Project

AKI Financial Literacy Kit

Tangible tools for Ugandans lacking financial literacy skills

AKI contextThe Index Project

Unlike many African nations, Uganda doesn’t suffer from a shortage of food. However, many still lack an income to purchase it. In response to this, the World Food Programme (WFP) decided to introduce a cash programme as a supplement to the standard food-aid packaging.

AKI Kit with test userThe Index Project

While providing cash seems like a simple fix, the still had another hurdle to overcome: introducing financial literacy skills into a barter economy. This is where the help of Design Without Borders (DWB) was enlisted.

AKI renderThe Index Project

Developed by designers in collaboration with the Ugandan beneficiaries, the Aki Financial Literacy Kit helps users manage their money. It ensures overall better planning and long-term development.

AKI Kit cash samplesThe Index Project

The kit consists of three elements, the first is a calendar and calculation tool, Aki Plan, which informs users about basic working periods and how much they earn.

AKI Kit group workThe Index Project

The second is a board game, Aki Play –a version of Monopoly– to teach the basics of financial literacy such as understanding the value of money, budgeting and planning.

AkiThe Index Project

Participants of the board game have to consider how best to invest their money, and features a number of scenarios based on life-like situations in Karamoja, Uganda.

AKI Kit calendarThe Index Project

The final is a wallet, Aki Save, which acts as a motivational tool to help users save to reach their goals. With six compartments to each represent a different expense, such as food, medical costs and other essentials.

AKI Kit sketchThe Index Project

"Lack of financial literacy is the main barrier to ending poverty and acquiring sustainable livelihoods,” says DWB Managing Director, Anjali Bhatnagar. “Traditional classroom teaching on financial literacy has shown itself to be ineffective in reaching poor households.”

AKI Literacy Kit videoThe Index Project

All the elements of the Aki Financial Literacy Kit were prototyped and repeatedly modified based on feedback from user-testing. The Design Without Borders team is hopeful that the kit will be widely implemented in the future.

Destacame advertisementThe Index Project

Destácame

The alternative credit-scoring platform

Destacame signatureThe Index Project

Creditworthy applicants are often denied loans as they lack detailed credit histories. Throughout Latin America, those who do have a credit history often have a negative score. This is primarily due to the over accounting for negative behaviour and under-reporting of positive behaviour.

Destacame interfaceThe Index Project

Destácame is an alternative credit-scoring platform giving everyone equal footing when it comes to loan applications. It uses alternative data to assess individual payment behaviour and creditworthiness.

Destacame score tabThe Index Project

Through the platform, users can receive a rating based on credit-like sources, such as utility receipts, which indicate all times that bills were paid on time.

Destacame offersThe Index Project

Destácame's main goal is to empower the mid and low-income segments of the population. People can gain access to financial products, achieve fairer rates and ultimately improve their lives.

Destacame foundersThe Index Project

Users can now demonstrate their creditworthiness to financial service providers, who are looking for better, faster and cheaper ways to extend credit and other financial products to a largely credit-invisible population.

Destacame advertisementThe Index Project

So far, Destácame has more than 850,000 users in Chile and Mexico. And since the entire application process at Destácame.cl is online, the cost of ‘acquiring’ a new client for banks is reduced by 70%.

Destacame videoThe Index Project

Credits: Story

M-PESA, IDEO, Bank of America, Bitcoin, Design Without Borders, J Stimp, Destácame and INDEX: Design to Improve Life®

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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