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A digital savings circle is a modern, technology-enabled version of the traditional ROSCA or ASCA model used around the world for group saving and rotating payouts. In a digital format, members contribute a fixed amount on a regular schedule, and one member receives the full pot each round until everyone has received their payout. Technology automates the entire process, making the experience safer, more transparent, and easier to manage for both individuals and financial institutions.
Digital platforms improve on the traditional model by handling group formation, payment collection, payout scheduling, reminders, notifications, and fair draw mechanisms. They also introduce dashboards where users can track contributions and progress toward their goal. For financial institutions offering the product, digital savings circles provide a capital-light way to help customers save for goals, increase engagement, build loyalty, and offer an alternative to debt-based products. The digital format unlocks scale, security, and compliance controls that are difficult to achieve in informal or manual circles, while still preserving the trust and motivation that make community saving so powerful.
What is a Digital Savings Circle?
How does the ‘circle saving’ process work from start to finish?
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A savings circle follows a simple cycle: people join a group, contribute a fixed amount on a schedule, and receive the pooled pot once during the life of the circle. The structure is predictable, transparent, and designed so that every participant benefits equally. The digital version automates and strengthens this flow so members can participate safely and efficiently.
The process typically begins with signup and onboarding, verifying identity if required and matching members into appropriate groups. Once the circle starts, all participants make their regular contribution (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly). At each interval, one participant receives the full combined pot. The order in which members receive their payout is either randomised using an audited algorithm or predetermined based on the rules of the circle. The cycle continues until every member has received their payout once.
Digital platforms add accountability and confidence to this process. Automated payment collection ensures members stay on track, real-time dashboards show everyone’s contribution status, and notifications keep participants informed of upcoming payments or draw results. When the final round is completed, the circle closes automatically, and participants may begin a new one. For institutions, this process runs with minimal operational overhead thanks to automated workflows and compliance controls built into the system.
What is the difference between ROSCA and ASCA?
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ROSCAs and ASCAs are two types of community-based savings systems used across the world, each with a slightly different structure. A ROSCA (Rotating Savings and Credit Association) distributes the pooled contribution to one member at a time on a rotating or randomised schedule until every participant has received their payout. An ASCA (Accumulating Savings and Credit Association) allows the group to save collectively over time, accumulating funds and distributing larger payouts at set intervals or at the end.
In a ROSCA, the amount collected each round is immediately given to one member. It’s simple, fast, and predictable, making it ideal for short-term goals and for communities who want regular payouts. In an ASCA, contributions accumulate over the full cycle, often generating a larger pot that may include interest-earning mechanisms or internal lending arrangements within the group. This makes ASCAs more flexible but also slightly more complex.
Digital savings circle platforms can support both models. ROSCAs benefit from strong automation for contributions and draws, while ASCAs benefit from robust tracking and transparent group balances. Both models allow financial institutions to tap into savings behaviours that already exist in their markets, offering customers familiar products with modern digital infrastructure, enhanced security, and greater convenience.
How does a Savings Circle work?
Step 1 - Match
People get matched to a group of people with a similar financial goal and everyone contributes the same amount each month. For example £100 a month for 10 months to raise £1000.
Step 2 - Draw
Each month there is a random draw and one person is awarded the total, in this example £1000.
Step 3 - Repeat
This process repeats every month until everybody has received their £1000.
Want to know more?
If you’re new to the concept of Savings Circles, it is best explained by our Co-Founder, Lucy. Before Lucy met Matt, she also hadn’t heard of collaborative finance but now she travels the world on the Circles mission to help change millions of lives through this simple idea.
What are the benefits for your customers?
Speed
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By working together 90% of people reach their savings goals faster than saving alone
Community
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Stay disciplined and get motivated with a like-minded community.
Support
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Feel supported on the savings journey with a knowledge hub and partner offers
Over 1 Billion consumers globally are already using our Savings Circles offline with over $500 billion transacting in Savings Circles worldwide every year - already a massive global TAM. More than 90 countries around the world are waiting for digital Savings Circles to arrive.
Digital Savings Circles are a huge opportunity
Savings Circles around the world
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Paluwagan - Philippines
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Susu - Ghana and other African countries
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Pardna - Jamaica and Caribbean
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Chit Funds or Kitty Funds - India
Making ROSCAs Digital - FAQs
Through rigorous experimentation, the development of the StepLadder platform has revealed authentic needs and opportunities for the customer. This is how we have answered the key questions of digital savings Circles and can maximise the impact for your own white-label offering.
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Embedded in the StepLadder member journey are the following stages:
Contact creation
Affordability checking
Circle matching
Payment processing
Monthly draw management
Renewals and habituation
To understand more about how we created our digital journey please download our FREE guide here.
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The Circles tech is built so that one Member of each Circle is selected at random (by a random allocation algorithm) to be awarded the Draw Total. You’ll be sent an email to check your Member dashboard, and then if it’s your turn you can book a call with the team.
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Circles can help you create better performance from fusing behaviour and finance.
We help you underwrite
We have built-in nudge factors
We create interpersonal engagement
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Community is the antidote to churn.
With Circles, you can transform saving into a human experience, instead of transactional one.
We triangulate channels of communication - making finance personal
We segment our members to anticipate and mitigate and remedy drop out issues
We visualise the Savings Circle holistically, and manage accordingly for flexibility.
To understand more about how Circles can help you manage churn, download our FREE guide here.
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Our Savings Circles are built to be better at mitigating risk.
We control for adverse selection by using random selection in StepLadder Circles
There is no financial interest in the mechanism: cost competitive & Islamic finance compliant
The Circle host is independent and can provide insight & support for the members
Funds from some Circles can only be used for stated purposes, yielding commercial uplift and superior recovery
We mitigate the main default risk (change in personal circumstances) via reserves & liquidity pools (where applicable)
Custody of funds: money paid in to the Circle can be held in a client money account and only released for certain specified purposes
StepLadder has a mandate to administer and maximise recovery for default. This is also transferable to a specialist, if best for resolution.
To understand more about how Circles can help you mitigate risk, download our FREE guide here.