How do savings services help poor people?

Poor households need savings to generate lump sums of cash, cope in bad times and fund daily expenses;

Formal savings services provide privacy and reliability, and are less risky and costly;

Savings accounts seem to benefit women more than men and have different impacts on different livelihood segments;

Future research should attempt to understand aspects of formal accounts that deliver value to clients and the delivery mechanisms that maximize this value.

Well, savings is indeed very important. In my country, there are many cooperatives and rural banks that offers savings and loans facilities to farmers, carpenters and fishermen. But the problem, these banks and cooperatives are sometimes take advantage by giving high interest rates.