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Financial Services for the Poor

Financial Services for the Poor

Increasing Opportunities and Financial Security
Financial services like savings accounts, insurance, and loans help people manage life's risks, take advantage of opportunities, and increase their financial security. However, only one in 10 people living on less than $2 a day has access to formal financial services. Instead, most of the world's poor must resort to risky, expensive, and inefficient informal methods—like storing money in mattresses or borrowing from moneylenders.

We envision a future in which billions of poor people in the developing world are able to gain access to safe places to save and other financial services. We're working with a wide range of public and private partners to harness technology and innovative business models in order to lower the costs, increase the value, and expand the availability of safe, affordable financial services.

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Financial Services for the Poor Backgrounder
Learn more about how savings accounts and other financial services can help poor people in the developing world build financial security and overcome poverty.


Grantmaking Priorities
Find more information on how we prioritize funding in our Financial Services for the Poor initiative.

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Jun 16, 2008
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