What is a kameti?
A kameti (committee) is the Pakistani and North Indian rotating savings circle: a fixed group pays a monthly amount and the pool is awarded each month, usually by drawing names (a "ballot"), until every member has had a turn. It is the default savings vehicle for households and trader networks that operate largely in cash.
Also known as: committee · BC (beesi committee) · ballot committee. It is one of 70+ regional forms of the ROSCA — rotating savings and credit association — used by an estimated 2+ billion people worldwide.
How a kameti works
- An organizer — a shopkeeper in a trading bazaar, a senior colleague, a family matriarch — forms the committee and sets the monthly amount.
- Names are drawn monthly among members who have not yet collected; some committees fix the first turns for the organizer or urgent cases.
- Contributions are collected in person; the winner takes the pool the same day.
- Larger bazaar committees can run to substantial monthly pools, functioning as trade credit between merchants.
Role and reach
Committees thrive where banking is distrusted or inaccessible: they finance weddings, gold purchases, shop inventory and school fees. Women-run committees are a parallel financial system of their own — organized through neighborhoods and extended families, and often the only savings vehicle available to women outside the formal economy.
Fintechs have noticed: Pakistani startups such as Oraan built digital committees precisely because tens of millions of people — disproportionately women — already understand and trust the mechanism, needing only custody and record-keeping they cannot get from a notebook.
How it differs from other ROSCAs
- Ballot-based order with occasional negotiated exceptions — need is accommodated socially, not priced.
- Deeply cash-based; the organizer’s ledger is the only record.
- Trader committees blur into trade credit, with pools sized for inventory purchases.
The digital version
ROSCASH gives the committee what digitizers like Oraan proved it wants — reliable custody and records — and adds a market for the thing ballots randomize: who gets liquidity first.
The mechanics are documented in the circle guide, and the honest questions — custody, "is this a pyramid?", where returns come from — in the FAQ.
See how ROSCASH circles work →