How a rotating samity works, and how to keep its accounts clear

Guide · Updated 30 September 2026 · By the Savings Circle team at FutureTech

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In Bangladesh a samity (সমিতি, also spelled somiti or somity) is any association of members. The word covers very different things: registered cooperatives, microcredit and loan groups, savings groups, and the informal rotating group this guide is about. In a rotating samity each member pays the same chanda (চাঁদা, contribution) every month, and each month one member receives the whole pot, until everyone has had a turn.

When the turn is decided by a draw each month, it is called a tan samity (টান সমিতি), also known as a lottery samity. Nobody pays or earns interest: everyone pays in the same total and everyone receives the same pot. An early turn is money up front that you pay back through your chanda; a late turn is a disciplined way to save. Samities like this run in Bangladesh and among Bangladeshi families in the UK, usually between relatives, neighbours or co-workers who trust each other.

Is a rotating samity the same as a cooperative or a microfinance group?

No. A cooperative samity (সমবায় সমিতি) is a registered society, and microcredit lenders in Bangladesh need a licence from the Microcredit Regulatory Authority. A rotating samity among relatives, neighbours or co-workers is an informal arrangement between people who know each other: nobody takes deposits, nobody gives loans and nobody earns a profit.

Savings Circle is not a cooperative, a lender or a microfinance service. It doesn’t take deposits, give loans or hold anyone’s money. It is a record book for the organizer of a rotating samity.

If someone offers a “samity” that promises profit on your deposits, or lends money with interest, it is not the rotating kind described here.

How does a tan samity work?

  1. An organizer brings members together and agrees the monthly chanda and the day it is due. There is one month for each member.
  2. Every month each member pays the organizer, in cash or by mobile wallet such as bKash or Nagad.
  3. A draw decides who receives that month’s pot. A member who has already received it is left out of later draws.
  4. The samity ends when every member has received the pot once.

One example described on a Bangla religious question-and-answer site has six members paying 500 taka a month, with a draw every month, so the samity runs for six months and each member receives 3,000 taka once.

How is the order decided?

In a tan samity the order comes from the monthly draw, held in front of everyone. Other samities agree a fixed order at the start. People often ask whether a tan samity is permissible; the religious answers we found accept it because nobody receives more or less than they paid in. Bidding for an early turn at a discount changes that, because the discount can look like interest.

Savings Circle has no bidding feature. Its random draw saves its seed, so anyone can check the result later. If your samity holds its draw by hand at each meeting, you can enter the order as you agreed it instead.

What goes wrong in a samity?

What should the samity agree before the first month?

How do you run a samity with Savings Circle?

  1. Create the group. Give it your samity’s own name, then choose a name type such as “Savings circle” or “Committee”. The group’s own name can be anything. Set the currency and the chanda each person pays per round.
  2. Add members from your contacts. They don’t install anything.
  3. Set the order. Run a random draw in front of everyone, or enter the order you agreed. A random draw saves its seed, so anyone can check later that it wasn’t changed. Members can ask to swap turns, and the swap is recorded too.
  4. Record each chanda as it comes in, by cash, bank or mobile wallet such as bKash or Nagad, with a screenshot as proof if you like. It works offline and syncs later.
  5. Remind the late ones. One tap opens WhatsApp, SMS or Telegram with a polite message in their language.
  6. Record each payout. Every entry is dated. A correction is added as a new entry, and the original stays in the history.
  7. Share the record. Send a member a receipt for a payment, or a statement of everything they have paid and received, like a pass book on their phone. You can also run the group from the web app at app.savingscircle.app.

Savings Circle never holds or moves money. Members pay each other the way they already do; the app is the shared record of who paid, who is next and what is owed.

Do members need the app?

No. Only the organizer installs Savings Circle, on Android, iPhone or Apple Watch, or uses the web app. Members don’t install anything. The organizer sends them reminders through WhatsApp, SMS or Telegram, and can share a receipt or statement whenever a member asks what they have paid.

Other names for the same idea

In Bangladesh it is a samity or tan samity. In Pakistan and India the same system is a committee or BC. Elsewhere it is a tanda in Mexico, a susu in Ghana, a chama in Kenya, an arisan in Indonesia and a paluwagan in the Philippines. Economists call all of these rotating savings and credit associations, or ROSCAs. Savings Circle keeps the record for any of them.

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