The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a five-year, $500 million commitment to help bring financial services, including savings accounts, to hundreds of millions of people living on less than $2 a day.

Announced at the foundation-hosted Global Savings Forum in Seattle, the pledge includes six grants totaling $40 million to institutions working to improve access to savings and other financial services in the developing world. Recipients of those grants include the World Bank, which was awarded $11.4 million to collect data on financial inclusion across a hundred and fifty countries; ShoreBank International, which received $10 million to work with BRAC Bank Limited to build a scalable mobile money platform that enables poor Bangladeshis to store, transfer, and receive money safely via their mobile phones; and Yale University and Innovations for Poverty Action, which were awarded $7 million for their Microsavings & Payments Innovation Initiative, an effort designed to improve understanding of the financial needs of the poor.

The foundation also announced grants of $6 million to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to launch the CGAP II Technology Program; $4.8 million to Vodacom Tanzania Limited to increase awareness and usage of the mobile money service M-PESA, in Tanzania; and $600,000 to the World Savings Banks Institute to double the number of savings accounts held by poor people at major banks in developing countries.

"Savings doesn't just help people mitigate the risks posed by a medical emergency or a bad crop," said Gates Foundation co-founder Melinda Gates. "It also gives them the ability to marshal their resources to build something better for themselves and their children. It allows them to fund their own businesses, to look ahead with confidence. Savings helps families take the giant leap from reacting to events to planning for a healthier, happier future."