Following a typical banking model may not be sufficient to cater to the financial and non-financial needs of unbanked women. Savings and credit products need to be fine-tuned to cater to the various lifecycle needs of women, such as children’s education, a daughter’s marriage or long-term saving for old age and medical emergencies. While savings and credit products remain the most important pillars for a women-owned/ managed SACO, other services such as financial literacy awareness programmes, insurance services or pension products can also be delivered through the same co-operative banking channel, if regulatory institutions permit such product offering. Although the grass-roots women owners and senior managers of the SACO need to be mentored and trained in the initial years, it is necessary to let them lead and choose the path for the organisation once they have matured in their leadership roles. As their sense of ownership increases, the women become more involved in runningthese enterprises. Grass-roots women are more aware of the key challenges that plague poor women clients.