"We may be poor, but we are so many. Why don't we start a bank of our own ? Our own women's bank, where we are treated with the respect and service that we deserve."
- Chandaben, old clothes seller,
Founder - member, SEWA Bank
"How many times do we need to prove that poor women are bankable?"
"Savings from our clients just pour in. As long as we design attractive savings schemes tailored to their needs and provide them with easy collection mechanisms, we see that poor women are great savers."
- Jayshree Vyas, Managing Director - SEWA Bank
From the start, SEWA Bank has laid great emphasis on savings. This was for two reasons:
Our Clients – all self-employed women with low income, demanded a safe place to save and showed a great ability to save small amounts regularly, as long as they were facilitated through appropriate collection systems.
From an institutional point of view, building up a credit loan fund from members' own savings was viewed to be the most cost effective with the least strings attached. In addition bulk loans from mainstream financial institutions were near impossible to access in the 70's and 80's, so SEWA Bank had to rely on a steady source of funds for on-lending, from its own depositors.
In response to demand from members for a variety of savings needs, SEWA Bank has developed a wide range of different savings products or schemes.
