Savings Product / Account Related Enhancements for Self-Funded Groups

Glossary

NGO or Cooperative	The organization or entity which will be onboarding groups and members on to the MifosX platform and will be hosting the solution and offering it as a service to their Groups/Members.

NGO or Cooperative

The organization or entity which will be onboarding groups and members on to the MifosX platform and will be hosting the solution and offering it as a service to their Groups/Members.

VSLAs

Village Savings and Loan Associations

Group Linked Savings

In this type of Savings, in each meeting Members are expected to bring in a certain minimum amount. Group may decide to define a default amount which is higher than the minimum amount. Members will receive a fixed number of shares and corresponding voting rights in return for the amount deposited. The amount collected can be used by the Group to give out loans or for the common good of the Group, but the contributions of each member is tracked and may be returned to them with interest/profit when the member leaves the group or at the end of the cycle.

Objective

Self-Funded Groups have a concept of Group Linked Savings vs Individual Savings.

Group Linked Savings are mandatory savings accounts - where members must save at least a minimum amount during every meeting. Also, savings must be in multiple of a certain value. And each X amount is such savings gives the user M shares and N voting rights.

This definition can happen at the Organization level and each Group may decide to follow the same parameters for Group Savings or decide to override the settings with their own parameters, including a different interest rate.

For example:

At the organization level - Mandatory Group Savings may be defined as:
- Every member should contribute a minimum of 50 towards Group Savings in each meeting
- The default contribution will be kept at 100
- Contribution can be in multiples of 50
- The maximum contribution can be 300
- Each Share is valued at 50
- For each 50 contributed, the member gets one voting right (for approving another member’s loans)
Group A decides to follow what is defined by the Organization (Cooperative)
Group B decides to override the settings as follows:
- Every member should contribute a minimum of 100 towards Group Savings in each meeting
- The default contribution will be kept at 200
- Contribution can be in multiples of 100
- The maximum contribution can be 500
- Each Share is valued at 100
- For each 100 contributed, the member gets one voting right

Success metrics

Goal	Metric

Goal	Metric
It should be possible to define a Group Savings account where Savings is linked to a group’s meeting and members are expected to save as per guidelines setup by the Group.	Group Savings are supported for VSLAs
Existing Savings Loan functionality should not be impacted	After upgrade, existing savings functionality and savings accounts and products should not be impacted in any way

Assumptions

Groups will not use Share products OR Recurring Deposit products to capture Group-Linked Savings. These alternatives were considered (see Open Questions section) and it was felt that a regular Savings product with a few more attributes / settings are easier for members to understand, define and manage.

Requirements

Requirement	User Story	Importance	Jira Issue

Requirement	User Story	Importance
Allow Group Savings feature to be enabled (This is a trapdoor setting. And once Group Savings accounts are activated, after that the setting may not be changed. )	As a MifosX Administrator - I would like to set GROUP_LINKED_SAVINGS_ENABLED to true - so that Group and Members can use the Group Linked Savings Account feature. If this flag is enabled, then the Administrator may also set another flag: ALLOW_GROUPS_TO_CUSTOMIZE_GROUP_LINKED_SAVINGS	Must Have
Define Group-Linked Savings product	As a Product Manager, I would like to define a Group-Linked Savings Product so that the following parameters of Group-Linked Savings may be captured: Minimum, Default and Maximum Amount that can be Saved per Meeting Value of One Share Voting Rights per share	Must Have
Allow a Group to enable one or more Group-Linked Savings Products for themselves	As a Group Leader - I would like to define which all Group-Linked Savings Products are applicable for my group - so that the Group-Linked Savings Parameters are applicable in meetings.	Must Have
Allow a Group to override parameters for one or more Group-Linked Savings Products	As a Group Leader - I would like to define/override the parameters which are applicable for the Group-Linked Savings Products that were enabled for my Group - so that the overridden Group-Linked Savings Parameters are applicable in meetings. The following parameters may be over-ridden: Minimum, Default and Maximum Amount that can be Saved per Meeting Value of One Share Voting Rights per share Note 1: This feature is enabled only if ALLOW_GROUPS_TO_CUSTOMIZE_GROUP_LINKED_SAVINGS configuration is set to true. Else, the Group will inherit the same parameters as defined in at the Organization-level Note 2: Minimum cannot be less than what was defined at the Organization Level and Maximum cannot exceed what was defined at the Organization level.	Must have
Open Group-Linked Savings account for each member (a separate account may be opened for each Savings product enabled)	As a group leader / data entry operator managing the Group - I would like open Group-Linked Savings accounts for members in my Group so that members may start saving into the “Group Savings”. Note: If the design complexity is not high - the Group-Linked Savings accounts may be automatically created/approved at the time of Creating and Activating a Member in a group. Group-Linked Savings Accounts may be opened only for Clients who are already in Groups and not for Individual Clients.A	Must have
Allow deposits from Group-Linked Savings Account	As a group leader / data entry operator managing the Group - I would like record deposits into Group-Linked Savings Account(s) of one or more member(s) in my group	Must have
Allow withdrawals from Group-Linked Savings Account	As a group leader / data entry operator managing the Group - I would like record withdrawals from Group-Linked Savings Account(s) of one or more member(s) in my group	Must have
When a client leaves a Group - their Group-Linked Savings Account should have zero balance.	As a group leader / data entry operator managing the Group - I would like allow members to leave the group only after Group-Linked Savings accounts are also closed.	Good to have

Out of Scope

UI/UX Design

Navigation approach:

→ Administrator enables Group-Linked Savings features and specifies if Groups may override the product-level settings

→ Administrator creates Group-Linked Savings products and sets relevant parameters for them

→ After Creating a group - Group Leader defines which Group-Linked Savings products are applicable for the group and also defines any overriding values for the relevant parameters for each Group-Linked Savings product

→ When creating a member - Group Leader opens/activates the Group-Linked Savings account for the member

→ During meetings - Group Leader captures deposits/withdrawals against Group-Linked Savings accounts of members

Open questions

Question	Answer	Date Answered

Question	Answer	Date Answered
Can share product / accounts be considered for capturing Group-Linked Savings?	Note: Share products may be more complex for Groups to administer. Shares have a predefined maximum limit (number and value of shares).
Can recurring deposits product / accounts be considered for capturing Group-Linked Savings?	Note: Recurring deposits are for a clients to save a predefined amount for a predefined term and may not be flexible like regular Savings and may be harder for Groups to administer.