Grameen Bank
Grameen
Bank (GB) has reversed conventional banking practice by removing
the need for collateral and created a banking system based on
mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity.
GB provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh,
without any collateral. At GB, credit is a cost effective weapon
to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the over all
development of socio-economic conditions of the poor who have
been kept outside the banking orbit on the ground that they
are poor and hence not bankable. Professor Muhammad Yunus, the
founder of "Grameen Bank"
and its Managing Director, reasoned that if financial resources
can be made available to the poor people on terms and conditions
that are appropriate and reasonable, "these millions of small
people with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create
the biggest development wonder."
As of March, 2008, it
has 7.46 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women. With
2,504 branches, GB provides services in 81,574 villages, covering
more than 97 percent of the total villages in Bangladesh.
Grameen Bank's positive impact
on its poor and formerly poor borrowers has been documented
in many independent studies carried out by external agencies
including the World Bank, the International Food Research Policy
Institute (IFPRI) and the Bangladesh Institute of Development
Studies (BIDS).
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