Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank has made its first loans in New York in an attempt to bring its pioneering microfinance techniques to the tens of millions of people in the world’s richest country who have no bank account.
The bank’s entry into the US, its first in a developed market, comes as mainstream banks’ credibility has been hit by the mortgage meltdown and many people are turning to fringe financial institutions offering loans at exorbitant interest rates.
Grameen has lent $50,000 in the past month to groups of immigrant women in Jackson Heights in New York’s borough of Queens. During the next five years, it plans to offer $176m in loans within New York city, and then expand to the rest of the US.
Ok, a quiz first. How big was the first loan Muhammad Yunus made in 1976? Once you have guessed go and read it all.
I think this is an excellent next step for Grameen. I wish them, and their clients, all the fortune in the world.
I guessed high…$200.
Interesting isn”t it….a pagan monotheist offering microloans to impoverished Americans. This is creative finance of the highest order. Where are our hero’s of western finance?? I do not know a Jesus loving financier. Why??
MMMMMM……..OOOOOOOO…….NNNNNNNN……EEEEEEEEE…..YYYYYYYYY!!
By the by…dont want to hear any excuses about bureaucratic quicksand…its not gonna wash.