The building blocks for comprehensive pension inclusion already exist in most developing countries...
Strong political and regulatory commitment
AMCs and insurers looking for new markets
Broad-based digital ID and payments adoption
Near universal mobile penetration
1.2b informal workers with capacity to save
Outreach by trusted community networks
... yet there's no easy and simple way for most people to save for old age or manage lifecycle risks.
Supply-side constraints and solutions
Legacy platforms
Most pension systems run on legacy tech designed for mandatory pensions for the salaried. Incapable of delivering voluntary micro-pensions to the self-employed.
Specialized pensionTech
White-labelled pensionTech platform designed specifically to administer and deliver voluntary micro-pensions to non-salaried individuals.
High capital cost
Building proprietary pensionTech for non-salaried from scratch is hugely expensive – in terms of capital costs, time-to-market and mistakes in design.
Low variable cost model
Countries and finance firms license a customized and ready-to-deploy pinBox pension platform. Avoid large capital investments on building proprietary pension Tech for LMI segments.
Pro-rich sales models
Finance firms use tax incentives and/or agents to drive product sales. But sales commissions on small-ticket pensions and insurance are unattractive for agents. Also, most LMI segments are not taxpayers.
Democratized pensions
Secure APIs help leverage the existing DFS ecosystem to "switch-on" a multi-product omni-channel marketplace. Governments and finance firms don't face millions of tiny transactions. Deal only with wholesale assets/ aggregated premiums.
Limited experience
Most countries do not have prior experience with building a micro-pension mass-market among low and middle-income (LMI) segments.
Expert advisory services
An expert pinBox team supports product and process architecture design, provides field-tested financial literacy tools, and helps set up an effective customer protection and governance framework.
Demand-side barriers and solutions
Friction, low access
Cumbersome KYC and complicated paper-based processes inhibit voluntary participation, increase costs and restrict access.
Simple UI, easy access
Familiar UI-UX of WhatsApp democratizes access and makes account activation as easy and simple as sending a message.
Affordability constraints
Most informal workers are uninsured. Use savings and/or expensive loans for risk management. Leaves no room for savings for old age or other lifecycle needs.
Integrated products
Pensions are layered with micro-SIP and insurance. Citizens enjoy single-window access to an integrated product basket.
Modest, irregular incomes
LMI segments earn modest irregular incomes. Can't afford large, regular contributions.
Save-as-you-earn
Subscribers are free to save in line with their own capacity and income flows. No penalties for missed contributions
Myopia, low confidence
Financial illiteracy and negligible experience with formal finance lowers public confidence and retail uptake
Trusted interface, incentives
Credible outreach partners deliver financial literacy, cross-sell the solution to their clients and drive persistency. Also, fiscal incentives (matching contributions) can motivate voluntary adoption and persistency.
pinBox Model: How it works
We use secure APIs to integrate the DFS ecosystem and help “switch-on” a multi-product, omni-channel digital micro-pension marketplace. In a few months. In any country. On a variable cost basis.
Citizens use mobiles to access the marketplace and easily set up and manage an integrated, NID-linked pension and insurance account. Use any regulated payment solution to save in line with their own income flows.
Credible field partners have free, plug-and-play marketplace access. Deliver financial literacy, cross-sell and prompt regular savings. Enjoy new fee income, long-term loyalty and a triple bottomline impact.
Governments and finance firms achieve mass-market coverage but deal only with wholesale assets and aggregated premiums. Unique NID-linked accounts enable targeted fiscal incentives without leakages.
How we engage
Planning & Design
- Mission Office set-up
- Supply-side assessment
- Review of existing legal and regulatory frameworks
- Demand side study
- Implementation blueprint: governance framework, digital
Build & Pilot-Test
- pensionTech customization and API integrations
- Limited scale rollout to field-test IEC tools, product rules, digital processes and uptake
- Refine implementation strategy, IEC, behavioral interventions and incentives based on field experience
Mass-Rollout
- Upscale deployment
- Concurrent M&E
- Periodic review of outcomes and implementation experience