Grameen Bank (GB)
Type	Body Corporate (Bank Ordinance)
Founded	1983
Headquarters	Dhaka, Bangladesh
Area served	Bangladesh
Key people	Muhammad Yunus, founder
Industry	Finance
Products	Financial Services Microfinance
Revenue	4,746,095,835 M. Taka (2005)
Operating income	5,109,093,240 M. Taka (2005)
Net income	1,000,441,986 M. Taka (2005)
Employees	11,855 (2003)
Website	http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/

The Grameen Bank (Bangla: গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক) is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans (known as microcredit) to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The system is based on the idea that the poor have skills that are under-utilized. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. The organization and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.^[1] Image File history File links Grameen_bank_logo. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Bangladesh. ... Dhaka (previously Dacca; Bengali: Ḍhākā; IPA: ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Bangladesh. ... Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: , pronounced ) (born June 28, 1940) is a Muslim Bangladeshi banker and economist. ... Finance is a field that studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. ... Financial services is a term used to refer to the services provided by the finance industry. ... Microfinance is a term for the practice of providing financial services, such as microcredit, microsavings or microinsurance to poor people. ... Look up revenue in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Taka is the official currency of Bangladesh. ... Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), also known as operating income and operating profit, is a term used to describe a companys earnings. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Taka is the official currency of Bangladesh. ... Net income is equal to the income that a firm has after subtracting costs and expenses from the total revenue. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Taka is the official currency of Bangladesh. ... This article is about work. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... Microfinance is a term for the practice of providing financial services, such as microcredit, microsavings or microinsurance to poor people. ... Community development banks (CDBs) are a special kind of bank designed to spur serve the residents of and spur economic development in low to moderate income (LMI) areas. ... Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. ... Collateral within a financial context is used to indicate assets that secure a debt obligation. ... Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: , pronounced ) (born June 28, 1940) is a Muslim Bangladeshi banker and economist. ... Lester B. Pearson after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

History

Muhammad Yunus, the bank's founder.

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 $27 to a group of 42 families so that they could create small items for sale without the burdens of predatory lending.^[2] Yunus believed that making such loans available to a wide population would have a positive impact on the rampant rural poverty in Bangladesh. Image File history File links Grameen_Yunus_Dec_04. ... Image File history File links Grameen_Yunus_Dec_04. ... Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: , pronounced ) (born June 28, 1940) is a Muslim Bangladeshi banker and economist. ... ‹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... Vanderbilt University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in Nashville, Tennessee. ... Possibly over a million people died in the Bangladesh famine of 1974, from July 1974 to January 1975, although the Bangladesh government claimed only 26,000 people died. ... Predatory lending is a pejorative term used to describe practices of some lenders. ...

The Grameen Bank (literally, "Bank of the Villages", in Bangla) is the outgrowth of Muhammad 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. The Bank was immensely successful and the project, with government support, 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 and in 1983 it was transformed into an independent bank by the legislature of Bangladesh. 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.^[3] The bank's repayment rate was hit following the 1998 flood of Bangladesh before recovering again in recent years. Bengali or Bangla (IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit languages. ... University of Chittagong (Bangla: চট্টগ্রাম বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) is a public university situated at Hathazari in Chittagong, Bangladesh. ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... Tangail is a district (zila) in central region of Bangladesh. ... Dhaka (previously Dacca; Bengali: Ḍhākā; IPA: ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... Founded in 1973 on the South Side of Chicago, ShoreBank is America’s first and leading community development bank. ... Nickname: Motto: Urbs in Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country State Counties Cook, DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City  234. ... The Ford Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City created to fund programs that promote democracy, reduce poverty, promote international understanding, and advance human achievement. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ...

The Bank today continues to expand across the nation and still provides small loans to the rural poor. As of mid-2006, Grameen Bank branches number over 2,100.^[4] Its success has inspired similar projects around the world. Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Application of microcredit

Grameen Bank Building in Dhaka

Grameen Bank is best known for its system of solidarity lending. The Bank also incorporates a set of values embodied in Bangladesh by the Sixteen Decisions.^[5] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1200x1600, 394 KB) [edit] Summary Grameen Bank Building, Mirpur, Dhaka. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1200x1600, 394 KB) [edit] Summary Grameen Bank Building, Mirpur, Dhaka. ... Dhaka (previously Dacca; Bengali: Ḍhākā; IPA: ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka District. ... Solidarity lending involved collateral-free loans through solidarity groups and village organizations like this one in Bangladesh. ...

The system is the basis for the microcredit and the self-help group system 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 repayment problem. There is no form of joint liability, i.e. group members are not responsible to pay on behalf of a defaulting member. (Mohammed Yunus) ^[6] In a support group, members provide each other with various types of nonprofessional, nonmaterial help for a particular shared burdensome characteristic. ...

In a country in which few women may take out loans from large commercial banks, the fact that most (97%) loan recipients are women is a significant accomplishment. 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.^[7] More than half of Grameen 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. The Taka is the official currency of Bangladesh. ...

Regional Information

Grameen Bank currently (as of December 2006) serves the following regions:

• South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan
• East Asia: China
• Southeast Asia: East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines
• Latin America and Caribbean: Bolivia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico
• Middle East: Saudi Arabia
• North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda

Grameen also has a presence in the United States. Map of South Asia (see note on Kashmir). ... East Asia Geographic East Asia. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... “West Indian” redirects here. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa. ... A political map showing national divisions in relation to the ecological break (Sub-Saharan Africa in green) A geographical map of Africa, showing the ecological break that defines the sub-Saharan area Sub-Saharan Africa is the term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south...

Ownership and other facts

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. Some other facts about the bank, as of August 2006 are:^[8]

• Total number of borrowers is 6.67 million, and 97% of those are women (3,123,802 members in 2003^[9])
• The Bank has 2,247 branches (as of May, 2006) covering 72,096 villages, with a total staff of over 18,795. (43,681 villages in 2003^[9])
• Loan recovery rate is 98.85% (repayment rate was 95% in 1998^[10])
• Since inception, total loans distributed amounts to Tk 290.03 billion (US$ 5.72 billion). Out of this, Tk 258.16 billion (US$ 5.07 billion) has been repaid.

Nobel Peace Prize

On 13 October 2006, the Nobel Committee awarded Grameen Bank and founder Muhammad Yunus the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."^[11] is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lester B. Pearson after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. ...

Related ventures

Main article: Grameen family of organizations

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).^[12] Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Fund is a not-for-profit company in Bangladesh established by Muhammad Yunus to provide risk capital to small and medium enterprises (SME) beyond the scope of Grameen Banks objectives of providing microcredit to the very poor. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Telecom is a not for profit company of Bangladesh. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Phone is a GSM-based mobile phone company in Bangladesh. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Grameen Bank Complex at Mirpur-2, Dhaka The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. ... Hillary Clinton wearing Grameen Check Grameen check (Bengali: gramin chek rural plaid) is a type of clothing design that is very popular in Bangladesh, and is rapidly expanding to other countries as well. ...

By November 2004 it had loaned over US$4.4bn to the poor. Along with bringing energy to rural residents and expanding employment, the Grameen family of enterprises has also branched out into rural pond management by Grameen Motsho or the Fisheries Foundation, seeking to preserve the broad diversity of fish in Bangladesh fisheries ponds.^[13] November 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December See also: November 2004 in sports November 2004 in science Events Deaths in November • 30 Pierre Berton • 29 John Drew Barrymore • 26 Bill Alley • 24 Arthur Hailey • 23 Rafael Eitan • 18 Bobby Frank Cherry • 16 John...

On July 11, 2005 the Grameen Mutual Fund One, approved by the SEC of Bangladesh, went IPO. One of the first mutual funds of its kind, GMFO will allow the 4+ million Grameen members as well as non-members, to buy into Bangladesh's capital markets. The Bank and its constituents are together worth over US$7 billion.^[14] is the 192nd day of the year (193rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Grameen Foundation USA collects donations in a US not-for-profit organization for distribution worldwide to microcredit organizations.^[15] Grameen Foundation USA has an A rating from Charity Watch.^[16]

Social improvement programmes

Besides extending microcredit loans to the poor people, Grameen Bank has taken several innovative programmes for poverty eradication. A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ...

Struggling members programme

This programme 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.
• 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. As of 2005, around 45,000 beggars have taken loans of about Tk 28.7 million (approx. US$441,538) and repaid Tk. 13.66 million (about US$210,154).^[17]

Rural telephone programme

Bangladesh has one of the lowest telephone densities of the world. Of its more than 85,000 villages, many are not covered under the land-phone network offered by the government-owned telecom company. To alleviate this situation, Grameen Bank has taken a programme to bring telephones to distant villages. Grameen Phone, a sister company of the bank, is already the largest mobile telephone provider of the country. Using their nationwide network, Grameen Telecom, another sister company of Grameen Bank, brought radio-telephones and mobile phones to almost half of the villages of Bangladesh. The bank also distributed loans to almost 139,000 poor women in rural areas to pay for the phones. The women set up call centers in their homes where the other villagers can come and pay a small fee for using the phone. This programme is commonly known as Polli Phone (the Village Phone) in Bangladesh. Grameen Phone is a GSM-based mobile phone company in Bangladesh. ... Grameen Telecom is a not for profit company of Bangladesh. ...

Criticism

Sudhirendar Sharma, a development analyst, claims that it has "landed poor communities in a perpetual debt-trap,"^[18] and that its ultimate benefit goes to the corporations that sell capital goods and infrastructure to the borrowers.^[19] He has also attracted criticism from the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who herself is now in jail under corruption charges, who commented "There is no difference between usurers [Yunus] and corrupt people".^[20] The Mises Institute's Jeffrey Tucker has criticized the Grameen Bank,^[21] 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.^[22] Abdul Barkat of the University of Dhaka claims that instead of alleviating poverty, Grameen Bank has put 80% of the female beneficiaries in debt traps. ^[23] A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ... Sheikh Hasina Wazed (Bangla: শেখ হাসিনা ওয়াজেদ) (born September 28, 1947) was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001. ... The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a foundation, based in Auburn, Alabama, dedicated to research on economics and political economy. ... Jeffrey A. Tucker Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank that espouses the Austrian School of economics. ...

Microfinance organisations increasingly rely on commercial money borrowed at interest. However, the proponents of binary economics argue that organisations like Grameen could receive interest-free loans from the Bangladesh central bank and then repay the loans. In this way the borrowers would only be paying for Grameen's administrative costs and so could have a great reduction in the cost of the money they borrow.-1...

See also

Sustainable development Portal

• Grameen Foundation, replicating the Grameen Bank model around the world
• Vikram Akula, microfinance institution modelled on Grameen Bank
• Opportunity International

Image File history File links Sustainable_development. ... Grameen Foundation, founded as Grameen Foundation USA, is a global 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Washington DC that works to replicate the Grameen Bank microfinance model around the world through a global network of partner microfinance institutions. ... Vikram Akula is the founder of SKS Microfinance a company that offers microloans on plastic cards in India. ... // Opportunity International General Information Opportunity International started as a world pioneer of microfinance being one of the first microfinance networks. ...

References

This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ...

Notes

Interview with PBS NOW Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in Leap years). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 135th day of the year (136th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 336th day of the year (337th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Jeffrey A. Tucker Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank that espouses the Austrian School of economics. ... The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a foundation, based in Auburn, Alabama, dedicated to research on economics and political economy. ... Jeffrey A. Tucker Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank that espouses the Austrian School of economics. ...

External links