Our Approach and Turnkey Services
Despite strong policy commitment, robust digital public infrastructure (DPI), universal mobile penetration, and a rapidly expanding digital payments footprint, the majority of workers in most developing countries are unable to easily access regulated pension and insurance products.
At Universal Pensions, we work closely with governments, regulators, financial institutions and DFS ecosystem stakeholders to co-design and implement inclusive, digital micro-pension systems. Our approach and turnkey services address both supply-side constraints and demand-side barriers, ensuring that informal and self-employed workers have easy access to simple, secure and affordable retirement solutions.
Supply-Side Barriers and Solutions
We address systemic challenges that hinder pension inclusion.
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 Constraints and Solutions
We tackle barriers that prevent informal workers from saving for their old age.
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.
Our field-tested micro-pension inclusion strategy
Digital Marketplace
A specialised, white labelled micro-pension admin and delivery platform, and secure APIs are used to integrate the existing DPI and DFS ecosystem.
This helps “Switch-on” a digital micro-pension “marketplace” with easy, universal access. Within a few months. On an operating cost basis.
Trusted Interface
Trusted CBOs, NGOs, MFIs, cooperatives and micro-banks serve as the “face” of the Scheme and help aggregate retail demand.
They deliver retirement literacy, cross-sell to their own clients and prompt regular savings.
Enjoy new fee income and long-term client loyalty.
Democratised Savings
Citizens use their mobiles to easily activate and manage a portable long-term and emergency savings account with insurance benefits.
And use any regulated digital payment instrument to save as per their own capacity and income flows.
Aggregated Demand
Pension funds and insurers achieve a commercially sustainable mass-market even with small-ticket saving and insurance products.
They deal only with wholesale, reconciled assets and aggregated premiums.
Unique NID-linked individual accounts enable targeted delivery of incentives.
Our phased roadmap template to help jumpstart a digital micro-pensions marketplace
Evidence-led Blueprint Design
- Consultations with key partners and review of available data/studies to assess past efforts, outcomes and gaps.
- Evaluation of the existing DPI and DFS ecosystem, and the legal and regulatory framework for voluntary pension inclusion.
- Feasibility study to size and profile latent demand and inform a customised governance, product and process architecture.
- Time-bound phased implementation roadmap.
Fully Customised Product and pensionTech
- microPension marketplace platform integrated with the digital ID and payments ecosystem to issue and manage fully portable individual accounts.
- Easy, simple and intuitive digital interface for account activation, contributions and services.
- Customised financial literacy and training toolkits.
- Flexible and attractive product basket with simple rules.
- Sustainable business model.
Pilot Rollout and Phased Coverage Expansion
- Limited scale rollout of the solution to field-test the processes, product, platform, communication tools, cross-sales strategy, user-interface, voluntary uptake and savings behaviour, and governance framework.
- Refinements based on field experience.
- Phased coverage expansion.
Ready to Transform Pension Systems?
Let's implement our field-tested approach to build inclusive, scalable pension solutions that serve millions of informal workers worldwide.
Start Phase 1 Consultation