The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organisation that provides credit to the poor in rural Bangladesh without any collateral. It was started when the village of Jobra in Bangladesh became the first area eligible for service from the bank in 1976.
It has reversed conventional banking practice by removing the need for collateral and created a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity.
At Grameen Bank, 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 May, 2006, it has 6.61 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women. With 2226 branches, GB provides services in 71,371 villages, covering more than 100 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).
(With inputs from www.grameen-info.org)
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