This paper presents the characteristics of the innovations brought in by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) in the village banking model. The innovation is called Savings and Credit with Education and has the following features:
* 5-6 women form a solidarity group;
* 5 solidarity groups form Savings & Credit Association (SCA);
* Members may save only and skip loan cycle(s);
* SCA joins credit union (CU) as an associate member;
* SCA management committee handles internal transactions, but no internal fund; rather, SCA deposits funds into CU;
* It is an integrated financial and educational service delivery system; imparts non-formal education on high impact topics (health, nutrition, other).
The paper also presents other innovations being used by WOCCU:
* Credit scoring and automatic loans;
* Removal of key barrier for good borrower entry;
* SME loans based on cash flow;
* IRnet (WOCCU's International Remittance Network)
o Credit unions can remit funds across 40 different countries for less than $10 per US$1,000.
