Grameen Bank

infobox company
company_name = Grameen Bank (GB)
company_
company_type = Body Corporate (Bank Ordinance)
foundation = 1983
location = Dhaka, Bangladesh
origins = Bangladesh
key_people = Muhammad Yunus, founder
area_served = Bangladesh
industry = Finance
products = Financial Services
Microfinance
assets = 59,383,621,728 Taka (2006)cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/auditreport/AuditReport2006/blancesheet.pdf |title=GRAMEEN BANK Balance Sheet, As at 31 December 2006 |accessdate=2008-01-17 |author=Ahmed & Ahmed (Chartered Accountants) |date=2007-08-01 |format=pdf |work=Auditors’ Report and Financial Statements OF Grameen Bank |publisher=Grameen Communications ]
revenue = profit 6,335,566,324 Taka (92.3 million USD) (2006)cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/auditreport/AuditReport2006/placcounts.pdf |title=GRAMEEN BANK Profit and Loss Account, for the year ended 31 December 2006 |accessdate=2008-01-17 |author=Ahmed & Ahmed (Chartered Accountants) |date=2007-08-01 |format=pdf |work=Auditors’ Report and Financial Statements OF Grameen Bank |publisher=Grameen Communications ]
operating_income = profit 5,959,675,013 Taka (86.9 million USD) (2006)
net_income = profit 1,398,155,030 Taka (20.3 million USD) (2006)
num_branches = 2,468 (Oct 2007)
num_employees = 24,703 (Oct 2007)
homepage = http://www.grameen-info.org/

The Grameen Bank ( _bn. গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit" Grameen Bank [http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=108 What is Microcredit] ] to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The word "Grameen", derived from the word "gram" or "village", means "of the village". The system of this bank is based on the idea that the poor have skills that are under-utilized. A group-based credit approach is applied which utilizes the peer-pressure within the group to ensure the borrowers follow through and use caution in conducting their financial affairs with strict discipline, ensuring repayment eventually and allowing the borrowers to develop good credit standing. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. Another distinctive feature of the bank's credit program is that a significant majority of its borrowers are women.

The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Fulbright scholar and Professor at University of Chittagong, launched a research project to examine the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted to the rural poor. In October 1983, the Grameen Bank Project was transformed into an independent bank by government legislation. The organization and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html|title=The Nobel Prize for 2006|author=|publisher=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006|date=2006-10-13|accessdate=2006-10-13]

Grameen Bank has sometimes been accused of charging relatively high interest rate and putting people in debt-trap. Some have also doubted whether the business model of the bank is a sustainable one without the explicit and implicit donor support that it receives. At the same time, it is often cited as a success story in microfinance and serves as a model for institutions with similar philosophy world-wide.

History

Muhammad Yunus, the bank's founder, earned a doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States. He was inspired during the terrible Bangladesh famine of 1974 to make a small loan of USD 27 to a group of 42 families so that they could create small items for sale without the burdens of predatory lending. [ cite web|url= http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/business/14nobelcnd.html |title=Microloan Pioneer and His Bank Win Nobel Peace Prize|author=Anand Giridharas and Keith Bradsher|publisher="New York Times"|date=2006-10-13|accessdate=2006-10-13] Yunus believed that making such loans available to a wide population would have a positive impact on the rampant rural poverty in Bangladesh.The Grameen Bank (literally, "Bank of the Villages", in Bangla) is the outgrowth of Yunus' ideas. The bank began as a research project by Yunus and the Rural Economics Project at Bangladesh's University of Chittagong to test his method for providing credit and banking services to the rural poor. In 1976, the village of Jobra and other villages surrounding the University of Chittagong became the first areas eligible for service from Grameen Bank.cite book |title=Women and Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh: Anthropological Study of Grameen Bank Lending| last= Rahman |first= Aminur |year=2001 |publisher=Westview Press |location=Boulder, Colorado|pages=p 4|isbn=0-8133-3930-8] The Bank was immensely successful and the project, with support from the central Bangladesh Bank, was introduced in 1979 to the Tangail District (to the north of the capital, Dhaka). The bank's success continued and it soon spread to various other districts of Bangladesh. By a Bangladeshi government ordinance on October 2, 1983, the project was transformed into an independent bank. Bankers from ShoreBank, a community development bank in Chicago, helped Yunus with the official incorporation of the bank under a grant from the Ford Foundation. [cite web |url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22455&rel=1|title=ShoreBank leaders had hand in Nobel prize|date=2006-10-16|accessdate=2007-05-15|author=Brandon Glenn|publisher=Chicago Business News] The bank's repayment rate was hit following the 1998 flood of Bangladesh before recovering again in subsequent years. By the beginning of 2005, the bank had loaned over USD 4.7 billion to the poor. [cite book |title=Organizing for Social Change: A Dialectic Journey of Theory and Praxis |last=Papa |first=Michael J. |coauthors=Arvind Singhal and Wendy H. Papa |year=2006 |publisher=Sage Publications |location= |pages=p72 |isbn=0761934359 ]

The Bank today continues to expand across the nation and still provides small loans to the rural poor. By 2006, Grameen Bank branches numbered over 2,100. [cite news| title = Bangladeshi banker wins Nobel Peace Prize | publisher = United Press International | last = |first = | date = 2006-10-13 | url = |accessdate = 2008-01-16 ] Its success has inspired similar projects in more than 40 countries around the world and has made World Bank to take an initiative to finance Grameen-type schemes. [cite book |last=Khandker|first=Shahidur R. |authorlink= |coauthors=Baqui, M. A. & Khan Z. H. |title=Grameen Bank: Performance and Sustainability |origyear=1995 |origmonth=|url=http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rNN3Dfxcc3oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=grameen+bank&ots=NWEF1ebHUI&sig=5qYr4t_ewY4jmKa1RmC9oDSYFq0 |accessdate=2008-01-16 |page = p vi |publisher=World Bank Publications |location= |language= |isbn=0821334638]

The bank gets its funding from different sources, and the main contributors have shifted over time. In the initial years, donor agencies used to provide the bulk of capital at very cheap rates. In the mid-1990s, the bank started to get most of its funding from the central bank of Bangladesh. More recently, Grameen has started bond sales as a source of finance. The bonds are implicitly subsidised as they are guaranteed by the Government of Bangladesh and still they are sold above the bank rate. [*cite journal
last = Morduch
first = Jonathan
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The role of subsidies in microfinance: evidence from the Grameen Bank
journal = Journal of Development Economics
volume = 60
issue = 1
pages = p 240
publisher = Elsevier
location =
date = October 1999
url = http://www.nyu.edu/projects/morduch/documents/microfinance/Role_of_Subsidies.pdf
accessdate = 2008-01-16 ]

Application of microcredit

Grameen Bank is best known for its system of solidarity lending. [cite book |last=Khandker|first=Shahidur R. |authorlink= |coauthors=Baqui, M. A. & Khan Z. H. |editor= |others= |title=Grameen Bank: Performance and Sustainability |origdate= |origyear=1995 |origmonth=|url=http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rNN3Dfxcc3oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=grameen+bank&ots=NWEF1ebHUI&sig=5qYr4t_ewY4jmKa1RmC9oDSYFq0 |format= |accessdate=2008-01-16 |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= |series= |date= |year= |month= |publisher=World Bank Publications |page=p xi |language= |isbn=0821334638] The Bank also incorporates a set of values embodied in Bangladesh by the "Sixteen Decisions". [Siddiqui, Kamal, "An Evaluation of the Grameen Bank Operation" (Dhaka: National Institute of Local Government, 1984)] At every branch of Grameen Bank the borrowers recite these Decisions and vow to follow them. As a result of the Sixteen Decisions, Grameen borrowers have been encouraged to adopt positive social habits. One such habit includes educating children by sending them to school. Since the Grameen Bank embraced the Sixteen Decisions, almost all Grameen borrowers have their school-age children enrolled in regular classes. This in turn help bring about social change, and educate the next generation. [cite web |url=http://www.proutworld.org/features/bangldesh.htm|title=Bangladesh:Towards Economic and Women’s Liberation Via Grameen Bank |accessdate=2008-02-04 |author=Ghista, Garda |year=2004 |format= |work= |publisher=ProutWorld ]

Solidarity lending is a cornerstone of microcredit and the system is now at work in over 43 countries. Although each borrower must belong to a five-member group, the group is not required to give any guarantee for a loan to its member. Repayment responsibility solely rests on the individual borrower, while the group and the centre oversee that everyone behaves in a responsible way and none gets into a repayment problem. There is no form of joint liability, i.e. group members are not obliged to pay on behalf of a defaulting member. However, in practice the group members often contribute the defaulted amount with an intention of collecting the money from the defaulted member at a later time. Such behavior is facilitated by Grameen's policy of not extending any further credit to a group in which a member defaults. [cite book |last=Hossain |first=Mahabub |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title=Credit for Alleviation of Rural Poverty: The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh |origdate= |origyear=1988 |origmonth=February |url=http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GkrRrt_ao50C&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=grameen+bank&ots=YpRKHvi-x_&sig=zHG-ScV4T9DQnQwuy77WsyGTOHA#PPA29,M1 |format= |accessdate=2008-01-16 |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= |series= |date= |year= |month= |publisher=Int Food Policy Res Inst IFPRI |page=P 7|language= |isbn=0896290670]

There is no legal instrument between Grameen Bank and its borrowers, the system works based on trust. [cite web |url=http://www.oneworldonepeople.org/articles/World%20Poverty/Grameen.htm|title=Grameen Micro-Credit & How to End Poverty from the Roots Up |accessdate=2008-02-04 |author=Sinclair, Paul |date=2007-12-22 |format= |work= |publisher=One World One People ] To supplement the lending, Grameen Bank also requires the borrowing members to save very small amounts regularly in a number of funds like emergency fund, group fund etc. These savings help serve as an insurance against contingencies. [cite book |last=Khandker|first=Shahidur R. |coauthors=Baqui, M. A. & Khan Z. H. |title=Grameen Bank: Performance and Sustainability |origyear=1995 |url=http://books.google.com.sg/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rNN3Dfxcc3oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=grameen+bank&ots=NWEF1ebHUI&sig=5qYr4t_ewY4jmKa1RmC9oDSYFq0 |accessdate=2008-01-16 |publisher=World Bank Publications |page=P. x |language= |isbn=0821334638]

In a country in which few women may take out loans from large commercial banks, Grameen has focused on women borrowers as 97% of its members are women. While a World Bank study has concluded that women's access to microcredit empowers them through greater access to resources and control over decision making, some other economists argue that the relationship between microcredit and women-empowerment is less straight-forward.Citation | last = Feiner | first = Susan F. | last2 = Barker| first2 = Drucilla K. | contribution = Microcredit and Women's Poverty| title = Dollar & Sense, The magazine of Economic Justice | publisher = Economic Affairs Bureau, Inc. | place = Boston, USA | publication-date = Nov-Dec 2006 | contribution-url = http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/1106feinerbarker.html ] In other areas, Grameen's track record has also been notable, with very high payback rates—over 98 percent. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, a fifth of the bank's loans were more than a year overdue in 2001. [cite web | url= http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pearl112701.htm | title= Grameen Bank, Which Pioneered Loans For the Poor, Has Hit a Repayment Snag | author= Daniel Perl, Michael M. Phillips | publisher= Wall Street Journal | date= 2001-11-27 | accessdate=2008-03-25] Grameen claims that more than half of its borrowers in Bangladesh (close to 50 million) have risen out of acute poverty thanks to their loan, as measured by such standards as having all children of school age in school, all household members eating three meals a day, a sanitary toilet, a rainproof house, clean drinking water and the ability to repay a 300 taka-a-week (around 4 USD) loan. [cite web |url=http://www.social-capital.net/articles/view.php?viewid=151 |title=Microfinance comes of age|last=Fraser|first=Ian |date=2007-08-03 |accessdate=2008-01-30 |work=Cover Story |publisher=Scottish Banker magazine]

Village Phone Program

Among many different applications of microcredit by the bank, one is the Village Phone program, through which women entrepreneurs can start a business providing wireless payphone service in rural areas of Bangladesh. This program earned the bank the 2004 Petersberg Prize worth of EUR 100,000/-, for its contribution of Technology to Development.cite web |url=http://www.developmentgateway.org/download/249636/Petersberg_winner.pdf|title=Grameen Bank-Village Phone Wins Global Competition for Contribution of Technology to Development|accessdate=2008-01-31 |author= |date=2004-07-27 |format=pdf |work= |publisher=Development Gateway Foundation (Washington, DC)] In the press release announcing the prize, the Development Gateway Foundation noted that through this program:

...Grameen has created a new class of women entrepreneurs who have raised themselves from poverty. Moreover, it has improved the livelihoods of farmers and others who are provided access to critical market information and lifeline communications previously unattainable in some 28,000 villages of Bangladesh. More than 55,000 phones are currently in operation, with more than 80 million people benefiting from access to market information, news from relatives, and more.

truggling members program

In 2003, Grameen Bank started a new program, different from its traditional group-based lending, exclusively targeted to the beggars in Bangladesh. [cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/BeggerProgram.html|title=Grameen Bank's Struggling (Beggar) Members Programme |accessdate=2008-01-31 |author=Yunus, Muhammad |year=2005 |month=July |publisher=Grameen Communications ] This program is focused on distributing small loans to beggars. The existing rules of banking are not applied, the loans are completely interest-free, the repayment period can be arbitrarily long, for example, a beggar taking a small loan of around 100 taka (about US $1.50) can pay only 2.00 taka (about 3.4 US cents) per week and furthermore the borrower is covered under life insurance free of cost.

The bank does not force borrowers to give up begging; rather it encourages them to use the loans for generating income by selling low-priced items. Based on a paper presented in the Global Microcredit Summit in 2006 by one of the bank's managers, as of May 2006, around 73,000 beggars have taken loans of about Tk 58.32 million (approx. USD 833,150) and repaid Tk. 34.78 million (about USD 496,900). [cite conference
last = Barua
first = D. C.
coauthors =
title =Five Cents a Day: Innovative Programs for Reaching the Destitute with Microcredit, No-interest Loans, and other Instruments: The Experience of Grameen Bank
booktitle = Global Microcredit Summit; Nova Scotia, Canada
place = Nova Scotia, Canada
date = 2006-11-12
url = http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/Workshops/7_Barua.pdf
accessdate = 2008-01-20 ]

Operational statistics

One unusual feature of the Grameen Bank is that it is owned by the poor borrowers of the bank, most of whom are women. Of the total equity of the bank, the borrowers own 94%, and the remaining 6% is owned by the Government of Bangladesh.cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/GBGlance.htm|title=Grameen Bank At a Glance |accessdate=2008-01-17 |author= |date= |year=2007 |month=October |format= |work= |publisher=Grameen Communications |pages= ]

The bank has grown significantly between 2003-2007. As of October 2007, the total borrowers of the bank number 7.34 million, and 97% of those are women. The number of borrowers has increased more than two-fold since 2003, when the bank had only 3.12 million members.cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/hist2003.html|title=Grameen Bank Historical Data Series 2003 |accessdate=2008-01-17 |author= |date=2004-07-21 |year= |month=|format= |work= |publisher=Grameen Communications |pages= ] Similar growth can be observed in the number of villages covered. As of October 2007, the Bank has a staff of over 24,703 employees and 2,468 branches covering 80,257 villages, up from 43,681 villages covered in 2003.Since its inception, the bank has distributed Tk 347.75 billion (USD 6.55 billion) in loans. Out of this, Tk 313.11 billion (USD 5.87 billion) has been repaid. The bank claims a loan recovery rate of 98.35%, up from the 95% recovery rate claimed in 1998.cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/cds.html|title=Credit delivery system |accessdate=2008-01-17 |author= |date=2002-09-18 |year= |month=|format= |work= |publisher=Grameen Communications |pages= ] However, many critics doubt this recovery rate and the definition that Grameen uses to come up with this rate. [cite news |first=Daniel |last=Pearl |coauthors=Phillips, Michael M. |title= Grameen Bank, Which Pioneered Loans For the Poor, Has Hit a Repayment Snag |url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pearl112701.htm |publisher=The Wall Street Journal |id= |date= 2001-11-27|accessdate=2008-02-04]

Nobel Peace Prize

Grameen Bank received several prestigious awards including the highest civilian award in Bangladesh, the Independence Day Award, in 1994. However, the greatest recognition of the bank's achievements came on October 13, 2006, when the Nobel Committee awarded Grameen Bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html|title=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006|author=|publisher=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006|date=2006-10-13|accessdate=2006-10-13] The award announcement also mentions that:

From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

On December 10, 2006, Mosammat Taslima Begum, who used her first 16-euro (20-dollar) loan from the bank in 1992 to buy a goat and subsequently became a successful entrepreneur and one of the elected board members of the bank, accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of Grameen Bank's investors and borrowers at the prize awarding ceremony held at Oslo City Hall. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author=AFP, Oslo |coauthors= |title= Yunus unveils vision to end global poverty | url= http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/12/11/d6121101011.htm | publisher=The Daily Star |id=Vol 5 Num 903 |date= 2006-12-11|accessdate=2008-01-31]

Grameen Bank is the only business corporation to have won a Nobel Prize. In a speech given at the presentation ceremony, Professor Ole Danbolt Mjøs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, mentioned that, by giving the prize to Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wished to focus attention on dialogue with the Muslim world, on the women's perspective, and on the fight against poverty. [cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/presentation-speech.html|title=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006: Presentation Speech|author=Mjøs, Ole Danbolt|publisher=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006|date=2006-10-13|accessdate=2008-02-04]

The Nobel prize announcement was celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm in Bangladesh. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title= Nation parties on Nobel win |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/10/15/d6101501011.htm |publisher=The Daily Star |id=Vol 5 Num 850 |date= 2006-10-15|accessdate=2008-02-04] Some critics asserted that the award affirms neoliberalism.

Related ventures

The Grameen Bank has grown into over two dozen enterprises represented by the Grameen Family of Enterprises. These organizations include Grameen Trust, Grameen Fund, Grameen Communications, Grameen Shakti (Grameen Energy), Grameen Telecom, Grameen Shikkha (Grameen Education), Grameen Motsho (Grameen Fisheries), Grameen Baybosa Bikash (Grameen Business Development), Grameen Phone, Grameen Software Limited, Grameen CyberNet Limited, Grameen Knitwear Limited, and Grameen Uddog (owner of the brand Grameen Check). [cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/gfamily.html |title=Grameen Family of Enterprises |accessdate=2008-01-17 |date=2007-11-28 |work=Grameen Website |publisher=Grameen Communications ]

On July 11, 2005 the Grameen Mutual Fund One (GMFO), approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Bangladesh, was listed as an Initial Public Offering. One of the first mutual funds of its kind, GMFO will allow the over four million Grameen bank members, as well as non-members, to buy into Bangladesh's capital markets. The Bank and its constituents are together worth over USD 7.4 billion. [cite news| title = Credit where credit is due: The banker who changed the world | publisher = The Independent | last = |first = | date = 2006-10-14 | url =http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1870835.ece |accessdate = 2008-01-17 ]

The work of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh Inspired the creation of the Grameen Foundation, which aims to share the Grameen philosophy and accelerate the impact of microfinance on the world’s poorest people.cite web |url=http://www.grameenfoundation.org/docs/resource_center/GrameenFoundation-AnnualReport2006.pdf |title=Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2006 |accessdate=2008-01-31 |author= |date=2007-08-01 |format=pdf |work= |publisher=Grameen Foundation, Washington, DC, USA ] Grameen Foundation USA, which has an A-rating from Charity Watch, [cite web |url=http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html|title=Top Rated Carities |accessdate=2008-01-17 |author= |date=2008-01-15 |year= |month=|format= |work= |publisher=American Institute of Philanthropy |pages= ] not only provides microloans in the USA itself (the only rich country where this is done), but also supports microfinance institutions worldwide with loan guarantees, training, and technology transfer. [cite web |url=http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2006/statements/grameen.html |title=Grameen Foundation USA |accessdate=2008-01-29 |work=25 entrepreneurs who are changing the world |publisher=Fast Company Monitor Grouop] As of 2008, Grameen Foundation supports microfinance institutions in the following regions: [ [http://www.grameenfoundation.org/where_we_work/ Where we work | Grameen Foundation ] ]
*Asia-Pacific: Bangladesh, China, East Timor, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia
*Americas: Bolivia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, USA
*Africa: Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen

Criticism

Sudhirendar Sharma, a development analyst, claims that the Grameen Bank has "landed poor communities in a perpetual debt-trap", [cite news
last=Sharma|first=Sudhirendar|title= Is micro-credit a macro trap?|work=The Hindu|date=2002-09-25
url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2002/09/25/stories/2002092500810900.htm|accessdate=2006-12-02] and that its ultimate benefit goes to the corporations that sell capital goods and infrastructure to the borrowers. [cite news|last=Sharma|first=Sudhirendar|title=Microcredit: Globalisation unlimited|work=The Hindu|date=2002-01-05|url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2002/01/05/stories/2002010500111200.htm
accessdate=2006-12-02] It has also attracted criticism from the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who commented, "There is no difference between usurers [Yunus] and corrupt people." [cite web |url=http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RSQNJQJ|title=A new party for Bangladesh's fray|accessdate=2008-01-31 |author= |date=2007-02-22 |format= |work= |publisher=Economist] Hasina touches upon one criticism of Grameen Bank: the high rate of interest that the bank demands from those seeking credit.cite web|author=IANS |title=Sheikh Hasina sneers at Nobel winner Yunus's bid to enter politics |publisher= Webindia123.com |date=2007-02-18|accessdate=2008-02-02|url=http://news.webindia123.com/news/ar_showdetails.asp?id=702180187&cat=&n_date=20070218] Similar to all microfinance institutes, the interest charged by Grameen Bank is higher compared to that of traditional banks, as Grameen's interest (reducing balance basis) on its main credit product is about 20%.cite book |title=Understanding and Dealing with High Interest Rates on Microcredit - A Note to Policy Makers in the Asia and Pacific Region| url=http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/interest-rates-microcredit/Microcredit-Understanding-Dealing.pdf|last= Fernando|first= Nimal A.|year=2006|month=May |publisher=ADB |location=Manila, Philippines|pages=p 8|isbn=] The Mises Institute's Jeffrey Tucker has criticized the Grameen Bank, [cite web|authorlink=Jeffrey Tucker|last=Tucker |first=Jeffrey |title=The Micro-Credit Cult. "The Free Market" |publisher= Mises Institute |month=November |year=1995| url=http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=215] asserting that the Grameen Bank and others based on the Grameen model are not economically viable and depend on subsidies in order to operate, thus essentially becoming another example of welfare. Another source of criticism is that of the Grameen's Sixteen Decisions. Critics say that the bank's Sixteen Decisions force families and borrowers to abide by the rules and regulations set forth by the bank.

ee also

* Grameen Foundation, replicating the Grameen Bank model around the world
* SKS Microfinance, microfinance institution modeled on Grameen Bank
* Opportunity International
* Islamic banking
* JAK members bank, a Swedish interest-free bank
* Grama Vidiyal, Indian Microfinance Bank

Notes

* Bornstein, David. "The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank". Oxford University Press, NY: 2005, ISBN 0-19-518749-0
* Counts, Alex, "Give Us Credit" , Crown, 1996, ISBN 0-8129-2464-9
* Sachs, Jeffrey. "The End of Poverty". Penguin Books, NY: 2005, ISBN 0-14-303658-0
* Yunus, Muhammad (with Alan Jolis), "", Oxford University Press: USA, ISBN 0-19-579537-7
* "Micro Loans for the Very Poor", "New York Times", February 16, 1997
* Cockburn, Alexander, "A Nobel Peace Prize for Neoliberalism?" http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10202006.html

References

External links

* [http://www.grameen-info.org/ Grameen Bank Official Site]
* [http://www.grambangla.com/ gramBangla] , Australian Bangladeshi Community Grameen Support Group
* [http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/journals/files/chazen/Grameen_Bank_v04.pdf Grameen Bank: Taking Capitalism to the Poor] , Mainsah, E. et al., Chazen Journal of International Business, Columbia Business School, 2004
* A video by Muhammad Yunus talking about Grameen Bank [http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/289/]
* [http://www.microsave.org/SearchResults.asp?cboKeyword=72&ID=20&cmdSubmit=Submit&NumPerPage=10 Grameen II: The First Five Years, 2001-2006] ; Stuart Rutherford et al for MicroSave, February 2006.
* [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Grameen-Bank-Company-History.html Grameen Bank History]
* [http://yunusphere.net YuNuSphere - Expanding Dr. Yunus' Sphere of Influence] by promoting Social business and the Grameen principle of "Credit without Collateral"
* [http://www.france24.com/en/20080404-bangladesh-burden-microcredit-caring-grameen-bank-mohammed-yunnus The crushing burden of microcredit] F24 international report