What are the biggest mistakes financial institutions make when working with savings groups?
In this first session of the Serving Savings Groups Sustainably webinar series, representatives from VisionFund International, FINCA Uganda, Turame Community Finance, and Imbita Women’s Finance Trust were given a simple challenge: discuss the problems, not the solutions. The result was a candid conversation about the operational, regulatory, and financial realities of savings-group linkage models.
Drawing on experience across multiple countries, panelists examine common pitfalls, including regulatory barriers, weak group governance and records, the limits of digitization without behavior change, and the high cost of reaching and assessing rural groups. The discussion also highlights practical considerations around group readiness, digital tools, community-agent networks, and product design.
Despite these challenges, panelists reported strong repayment performance, prompting an important question for the sector: if repayment is not the primary challenge, what is preventing savings-group linkage models from scaling sustainably? This resource captures key lessons, practical takeaways, and open questions for financial institutions, NGOs, digital service providers, and others seeking to serve savings groups more effectively. Be sure to check out Part II where the same institutions discuss the adaptions, innovations, and solutions that have allowed them to successfully service savings groups.
Have you faced similar challenges? Join the conversation on the DSG Hub Member Forum to discuss regulatory barriers, digitization, group readiness, sustainability, and other lessons raised during the webinar: Continue the discussion.
