Shohoz Shonchoy's Product 7: Research
Research questions:
We were especially interested in three questions that arise from the design of P7:
a: would these small-time traters build savings or would they open acccounts just to access the loans? - and would that behaviour change over time?
b: would they tend to repay something each day?
c: would the behaviour of the very smallest traders (those who sit on the sidwalk with a few dollars` worth of goods) differ from that of the bigger ones (those who rent a tin-sided shop)?
Findings to date:
P7
started in January 2004. Three years is a reasonable timespan to study,
so research analysis is getting underway now (mid 2007). No work has
yet been done on distinguishing the behaviour of the different types of
trader (question c above). Preliminary observations on the other two
questions are:
As in P5, there has been a steady trend towards greater saving:
of the 50 biggest savers in April 2007, 23 hold no loan, and their
combined savings balance is half as big again as their outstanding
loans. The biggest balances exceed $500. Nevertheless, the majority of
P7 clients have savings balances that are small relative to their loan
balances, and the most common behaviour is for clients to withdraw their savings balances each time a loan is repaid,
and then to borrow again. At this satge, the conclusion must be that
for most of these traders, the preference is to borrow as much as
possible and use all their capital in their business rather than
keeping it in a savings acccount.
Compared with P5, a bigger proportion of P7 clients make a loan repayment and/or deposit savings on a daily basis. Many comment on the convenience of the daily service. Closer examination of this behaviour is in hand. Watch this space.
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