[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-113292-en":3,"doc-seo-113292-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},113292,8796095461610,"Oliver","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",8,"Research & Report","Use of Financial Services - Chapter 2 - Digital payments, savings, borrowing, and opportunities","Chapter 2 explains how financial services strengthen financial inclusion through account-based use, focusing on digital payments, savings, borrowing, and the broader financial ecosystem. It details evidence that digital transactions improve security and privacy, reduce collection costs and time, and can lower risks such as crime linked to cash handling. The chapter also shows how account use can shift gender norms by increasing women’s control over income, expand inclusion for underserved groups, and support development outcomes through investment, health, and education.","Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized  \nCHAPTER 2  \nUse of  \nFinancial Services  \n2.1 Digital payments  \n2.2 Savings  \n2.3 Borrowing  \n2.4 The financial ecosystem  \n2.5 Opportunities for expanding the use of accounts  \n2.6 Opportunities for increasing account ownership for the unbanked through digitalizing payments  \nUse of Financial Services 49  \nIntroduction  \nThe increases in formal financial account ownership and the narrowing of equity gaps documented in chapter 1 are good news. The goal of financial inclusion, however, is for account owners to benefit from the use of accounts for digital payments, savings, and appropriate credit because such uses provide a range of positive benefits, which extend far beyond convenience. Among those benefits, account holders, and especially women, enjoy greater security and greater privacy for their transactions. In other benefits, a field experiment in Bangladesh found that factory workers saved more when they received their wages through direct deposit—but there was no such effect for the control groups paid in cash.1 Likewise, workers in Afghanistan who automatically deposited part of their salary into a mobile savings account had higher savings and financial security than workers who did not adopt automatic deposits.2  \nFor recipients, digital payments can also be cheaper than receiving payments in cash. In Liberia, for example, by receiving their salaries as digital deposits teachers saw the cost of collecting their money (including bus fare) fall by 92 percent, from $25 per paycheck to $2, and they were able to spend more time in the classroom because they no longer had to take time off to travel into town to collect their wages.3 Teachers were also able to avoid traveling with cash in their pockets, a safety benefit confirmed by research that associates digital payments with reductions in crime.4  \nGovernment payments are one category of digital payments known to produce benefits for both the sender and the recipient. In India, internal fraud and leakage from pension payments dropped by 47 percent when the country transitioned from cash to sending payments to biometric smart cards. Recipients also spent less time collecting payments, and they received more money because of reductions in fraud. The government saved millions of dollars annually in administrative costs—more than enough to cover the cost of the new system.5  \nAlso in India, a government workfare program that reached over 100 million people found that women who received benefits paid directly into their own account in a financial institution (and not into the account of a male household head) were more likely to find employment than those paid in cash. Women whose husbands had been most opposed to their working saw the biggest impact. These patterns suggest that gender norms can be influenced by giving women greater control over their income, which can increase household bargaining  \n6 power.  \nBeyond South Asia, a study of safety net payments made primarily to women after a drought in Niger found that social benefits paid through mobile phones instead of in cash offered women greater privacy and greater  \n1. Breza, Kanz, and Klapper (2020) .  \n2. Blumenstock, Callen, and Ghani (2018) .  \n3. Dusza (2016) .  \n4. An analysis of 20 years of crime data from the US state of Missouri and nearby areas found that the introduction of digital safety net payments reduced burglary, assault, and larceny, lowering overall crime rates by about 9 percent (Wright et al. 2017) .  \n5. Muralidharan, Niehaus, and Sukhtankar (2016) .  \n6. Field et al. (2021) .  \nUse of Financial Services 51  \ncontrol over their funds, and it boosted their spending on nutritious food. The administrative costs for the social benefits program were 20 percent less for mobile transfers than for cash payments.7 Digital payments can also speed up the collection of social benefits payments. A recent study in Bangladesh on the impact of moving e","cbCaimnoGEGPf8Q7","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimnoGEGPf8Q7","pdf",13660556,1,91,"English","en",105,"# Use of Financial Services\n## Introduction\n## Use of digital payments\n## Savings and automatic deposits\n## Borrowing and expanding account use\n## Building savings, accessing credit, and development impacts\n## Opportunities for unbanked populations","[{\"question\":\"What benefits can account owners gain from using financial services beyond convenience?\",\"answer\":\"Account use for digital payments, savings, and appropriate credit brings security, privacy, and improved financial outcomes, including benefits supported by multiple field studies.\"},{\"question\":\"How do digital payments affect recipients’ costs and safety compared with cash?\",\"answer\":\"Digital receipts can reduce collection costs and travel time, while also lowering safety risks associated with carrying cash; research links digital payments with reductions in crime.\"},{\"question\":\"How can expanding account access influence women’s economic outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"Studies described in the chapter show that when women receive benefits or wages directly into their own accounts, they gain greater control over income, which can improve employment chances and household bargaining power.\"}]",1784502334,229,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"use-of-financial-services-chapter-2-digital-payments-savings-borrowing-and-opportunities","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,53,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/use-of-financial-services-chapter-2-digital-payments-savings-borrowing-and-opportunities/113292/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-19",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"What benefits can account owners gain from using financial services beyond convenience?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"Account use for digital payments, savings, and appropriate credit brings security, privacy, and improved financial outcomes, including benefits supported by multiple field studies.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"How do digital payments affect recipients’ costs and safety compared with cash?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Digital receipts can reduce collection costs and travel time, while also lowering safety risks associated with carrying cash; research links digital payments with reductions in crime.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"How can expanding account access influence women’s economic outcomes?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"Studies described in the chapter show that when women receive benefits or wages directly into their own accounts, they gain greater control over income, which can improve employment chances and household bargaining power.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,100,104,109,114,119,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]