Financial Services & Products

Owned by Ed Cable
Last updated: Oct 08, 2014
5 min read

Financial Services Product Management

Loan Products

Savings secured loans – this feature looks as though it is well fleshed out in the jira and is in development.  It is expected to ship in xx release.

Variable rate loans.  This may be somewhat tied to the above Automatic Rate Adjustments.  Specifications for this need to be written.

Collateral Loans

Savings Secured Loans

Agriculture Loans

Open End/Top Up/Line of Credit Loans

Incremental Disbursement Loans

Village/Group Lending

Solidarity Group Lending

Loan Approval Process

Loan Product Configuration

Amortization

Repayment Types/Schedules

Repayment Frequency

Interest Rate Calculation Methods

  • Flat
  • Declining Balance
  • Declining Balance - Interest Recalculation (Daily, Weekly, Monthly)
  • Automatic Rate Adjustments.  e.g. savings = 6%, loan is 5% higher.  Savings dividend changes to 7%, loan rates must adjust.  This requires development.  Exact specifications must be written for development.


Interest Calculation Frequency

Payment Year

Payment Processing Strategy
Grace Period Support

Savings Products

Passbook Savings COMPLETE

Mifos X has full support for basic passbook savings at the client, group, and center levels. Each passbook savings account has the same flexible account parameters that be configured at the product level including the specification of the interest rate, its compounding period, its posting period, balances used for interest calculation as well as the number of days in a year. A minimum opening balance and minimum balance for interest calculation as well as lock-in period can be enforced. It fully integrates into with cash-based accounting for automated portfolio posting as well as our fees & charges module. 

Current Accounts COMPLETE

In Mifos X, you can create a current account (zero-interest savings account) that allow you to specify an overdraft limit enabling the account to be used as a current or transactional account in which loan payments/fees can be automatically be deducted. These current accounts fully utilize the standing instruction functionality found in Mifos X.

  • IN DEVELOPMENT  Making these a distinct product (separate from savings products) in the Product Administration section of the Community App is still being worked on.

Shares Management SCHEDULED IN ROADMAP

Shares would be an extension of the general savings account. Shares management requires the ability to specify and track the nominal value of a share and then to allow shares to be purchased or allocated from a savings account. The number of shares owned will also be the basis for how cash dividends are allocated which could also be in the re-purchase of additional shares. 

SCHEDULED IN ROADMAP

Fixed Deposits (Term Deposits/CDs) COMPLETE

Mifos X has full support for fixed/term deposit functionality with the ability to configure interest rate bands defined by length of deposit term. Fixed Deposit product share the same flexible configuration parameters for interest calculation found in the basic savings accounts. Penalties for premature closure and withdrawal are supported. At maturity fixed deposit amount can be withdrawn, rolled over to a new fixed deposit, or transferred to another saving account. Fixed deposit products support the full range of charges and fees as well as integration with cash-based accounting. 

  • Minimum & Maximum Deposit Terms: Minimum length of time funds must remain in the account to earn interest as well as the maximum length of time a deposit can be held can be defined.
  • Pre-mature closure: Penalties for premature closure of an FD account (withdrawal before maturity) are calculated as a percentage deducted off either the interest applicable to the period up to the premature withdrawal or for the interest for the whole term. 
  • Interest Rate Charts: interest rate charts are created to define the interest rate bands that are applied to deposits held for periods of certain duration. Periods can be defined in days, weeks, months, or years. Multiple interest rate charts can be created and activated for certain lengths of time and applied across different fixed and recurring deposit products. 
  • IN DEVELOPMENT Configurable Interest Rate Bands based on Amount Deposited 

Recurring Deposits COMPLETE

Extending off of the fixed deposit functionality, recurring deposit products support the same parameters for interest rate charts, term length, and pre-mature closure as fixed deposit products. Mifos X supports term deposits with a regularly recurring voluntary or mandatory deposit amount .

IN DEVELOPMENT

Micro-Pensions and Long-Term Savings Contracts FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

Both of these products help the client through retirement and major life-cycle events in the future by building up an annuity which provides a regular flow of payments from retirement until death or a lump-sum payment. This annuity can be built up through contractual savings deposits over time or through contributions from an employer into an investment fund like a pension program. 

 

Dividend Calculation and Payment.  This topic needs significate data collection from cooperatives.  The existing core system properly handles regular recurring interest (dividend) payment.  For example, savings account earns 3% dividends (interest) per month calculated on average daily balance.  What we need to learn is how financial co-ops desire to payout "bonus" dividends.  This may fall into custom reports.

    • Recurring Deposits
    • Current Account
    • Term Deposits

Savings Account Management

    • Transfers
    • Standing Instructions
    • Linkage Between Loan & Savings Accounts 

Savings Product Configuration

Interest Calculation - Mifos X supports calculation of interest balance on daily or average daily balance with the ability to specify the compounding period daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually and the posting period, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. There is also the ability to manually to control the date of both posting and calculation of interest.

Lock-in Period - Mifos X supports a lock-in period where you can freeze an account upon opening for a certain number of days, months, weeks, or years. 

 

Mobile Payments and Transfers

 

Penalties, Fees, and Charges

One-Time Fees

Automated Penalties

Recurring Fees

Event-Based Fees

Client-Level Fees

Membership Fees.  Nearly every cooperative collects a membership fee and/or requires a minimum balance to remain an active member of the cooperative.  To date, an awkward method of opening a “dummy” account is being used.  For good internal control, this method is not recommended.  The system must be able to collect fees at the client level before any sort of account is opened.  Accounts may be not opened until the individual is approved for membership.  If the applicant is not approved for membership, the fee may be returned.  By having fee collection at the client level, fees can be tracked, properly credited to the potential member then held in a suspense general ledger account until the member is approved where the funds would then transfer into a fee income account, or if denied, returned to the applicant.

Insurance

Pass-through of Premium as Collection of Fees SCHEDULED IN ROADMAP

For now, most financial institutions are partnering with other micro-insurance providers who have a full suite of micro-insurance product offerings. Most organizations simply act as a pass-through for the insurance premium and must capture this as a fee in Mifos. This requires a comprehrensive fees module in Mifos including slab fees where the age of the client or the amount of the loan determines the fees. 

Full Insurance Product Management FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

Some of our larger customers are beginning to explore managing their own insurance product offerings; for these institutions, they will require full support of the entire insurance product lifecycle including the pricing of the products, the calculation of risk, the collection of premiums, the handling and disbursement of claims, etc. Rather than than build this as part of the Mifos X platform, we are looking to integrate with a third-party system like OpenUnderwriter.