The journey from financial access to financial resilience depends on high-quality data on client outcomes. By understanding how clients are applying financial services to their businesses and their livelihoods, providers can better understand and maximize their impact.

To advance this goal among the companies we support and the broader industry, in 2022, Accion became a founding partner of the MFI Index. Created by the firm 60 Decibels and now in its fourth year, the MFI Index has given the microfinance industry greater visibility into customer outcomes by surveying more than 88,000 customers from 126 financial service providers globally, including many Accion partners.  

Accion has continued to deepen our partnership with 60 Decibels over the past few years, supporting additional survey modules on savings and customer protection in 2023, and adding gender and climate modules in 2024. We’ve also increased the number of our portfolio companies participating each year — and their results have helped inform our Impact Report.

Accion’s partner BancoSol in Bolivia participated in the Microfinance Index in 2024, 2023, and 2022. Co-founded by Accion in 1992 as the world’s first regulated commercial bank specialized in microfinance, BancoSol today serves two million clients. Through Accion’s global partnership with Mastercard, Accion Advisory supported the development and launch of BancoSol’s innovation hub, which helped accelerate the usage of BancoSol’s mobile banking app. The app’s gamification platform encourages increased savings, more on-time loan repayments, and greater use of digital channels.

What BancoSol’s clients are saying through the data

BancoSol has seen strong results from their institutional efforts to boost clients’ financial health and support productive use of digital financial services. In the 2024 Index, twice as many (24 percent) of BancoSol’s clients reported significant improvements in quality of life compared to just 12 percent in 2023. As one BancoSol client said, “My savings account has helped me set aside more money from my job while making transfers easier through the app. This has given me greater confidence in managing my finances.”

BancoSol also saw strong improvement on client protection indicators. The percentage of clients reporting a strong understanding of terms and conditions more than doubled (from 33 percent in 2023 to 60 percent in 2024), and the percentage of clients reporting that loan repayment is not a burden increased to 60 percent in 2024, from 40 percent in 2023. Additionally, clients with longer tenure are seeing more benefits: clients banking with BancoSol for more than two years were 22 percent more likely to report an increase in income. Results from the 2024 Microfinance Index specific to BancoSol and their client outcomes were provided to Accion and BancoSol and are not in the publicly available report.

The availability of country-level benchmarks for the first time this year helped contextualize the regional rankings. However, of the seven FSPs that participated in the 2024 Microfinance Index, BancoSol is the only commercial bank. The leadership team is trying to leverage its local relationships to encourage greater participation from members of the Bolivian microfinance banking association (ASOFIN) next year.

BancoSol’s strong year-over-year improvement on client protection indicators is encouraging to see following the institution’s recent focus on financial education initiatives for new clients. However, clients with longer tenure were 10 percent more likely to report challenges with repayment, suggesting a need to continue these efforts.

BancoSol introduced some new loan officer initiatives in 2024, including a revamped engagement model with new targets on training customers to use digital financial services and making mobile deposits, as well as financial capability training for women. Following these implementations, the team was somewhat surprised not to see stronger year-over-year improvements in digital usage and women’s financial health, but the team acknowledges that perhaps more time is needed to reflect changes in client-level outcomes.

In addition to the year-over-year improvements customers reported on quality of life and client protection, the bank also saw a 75 percent increase in clients reporting they did not have access to good alternatives, suggesting BancoSol continues to play an important role in the Bolivian financial system.

How we’re taking action

BancoSol’s leadership is using these valuable client-level insights to strengthen what’s working while also identifying areas for improvement. In December of last year, the CEO of BancoSol Veronica Gavilanes participated in the 60 Decibels Latin America regional webinar, highlighting results from the 2024 MFI Index and noting the greater benefits reported by long term customers, as many BancoSol customers have grown with the bank for decades.

BancoSol committed to financial inclusion, through its Intelligent Banking Model in gender Avanza Mujer. Avanza Mujer has a comprehensive offering: financial solutions that adapt to the life cycle of their businesses, with loans with suitable conditions, as well as savings products, insurance, among other services; and also value-added services to enhance the development and growth of their businesses with tools, programs, and free resources designed to strengthen their knowledge, skills, as well as to close the digital gap and expand their network of contacts. As such, Gavilanes noted the value of the Accion-funded gender module in the Microfinance Index, which is in line with BancoSol’s top priorities. The BancoSol team plans to continue to track gender and digital financial services indicators for expected improvements. The team also sees value in the new climate benchmarks, which can provide a baseline for future initiatives focused on helping clients respond to and prepare for extreme weather.

Overall, with the data BancoSol has gained from three consecutive years of listening to its customers through 60 Decibels surveys, they are strengthening their ability to meet customer needs and deepen their impact. “With Banco Sol, I feel secure knowing my money is safe,” said one client. “Mobile banking makes transactions fast and easy, saving me time and money while improving my daily life.”