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Design Principles for Financial Services for the Poor Following is an enumeration of different design principles that are useful when designing financial services for the poor. First the enumeration, then a discussion of the background where these principles apply with an indicator of their areas of impact; Product, Technology or Policy and more importantly where to use them. 1) The 11 Design Principles for Financial Services for the Poor   Design for Social Obligation   Design for Social Rank Flexibility with Sanctions Structured Illiquidity Change the Iconography, Design with Local Values Design for Convertibility Help Calculate Convertibility Design for Relative Volume, not Increment Lucky Numbers Tranches and Tiers Design for Cyclical Events 2) Social Obligations and Social Rank Poor people’s existing savings behavior involves social obligations and commitments, not just individual self-discipline or planning for the future. New savings sys...

Electronic Payment Systems A few points are in order before we embark on our journey to the center of the earth. One , first mover advantage is unduly overrated and NOT for nothing, it does be store on the mover depending on the industry and the service offering at hand some tremendous power unless you squander it with always referring to your completion in all your public utterances  Case in point, Celtel in Kenya wasted its first mover advantage to Safaricom by constantly carrying out adverts with overt and covert reference to the competition, basically sharing their marketing budget with Safaricom and in the process creating a powerful sublime message in favor of their competitor: Lesson, black out your competition completely, don’t mention or acknowledge them in your customer communications or presence. Two , it is a believe among many professionals, that the spectacular success of Safaricom Mpesa is due to an alignment of the sun, moon and the stars, th...