The Poor Always Pay

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/08/the-poor-always-pay.html

An Asian bank for low-income women is out to teach Wall Street a lesson.

It’s pretty safe to say that three years ago no one could have predicted that one of the few financial institutions to be opening new branches and expanding lending in America would be a Bangladeshi bank that specialized in loans to people below the poverty line (the vast majority of them women). But that’s just what has happened. Grameen America, the U.S. offshoot of the famous Asian microlending institution founded by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is now in its third year of operation in America, and even as the major banks, still battered from the financial crisis, are keeping credit tighter than ever, particularly to the small and midsize businesses that need it so desperately, Grameen is expanding. This summer, the little Bangladeshi bank—already operating in New York; Omaha; and Washington, D.C.—will move into its fourth U.S. city, San Francisco, fueled by a series of loans from institutions like Wells Fargo and Capital One that, aside from basking in the glow of good PR, have realized that they are more likely to get their money back by lending to African-American hairdressers in Queens or Latina food-cart operators in D.C. than by chucking money at middle-class whites who have bought more McMansion than they can afford.

Ironically, Yunus himself has characterized Grameen as “sub-sub-subprime.” In this case, it’s not a bad thing. Since its establishment in 1983, Grameen has given out billions to borrowers around the world, mainly women below the poverty line, and has recouped 98 percent of its loans. Admittedly, those loans are tiny—$1,500 on average in the U.S., but much less elsewhere. Interest rates are high (15 percent in the American operation), but they are much less than the poor would pay a black-market lender. According to its proponents, the Grameen model works because of peer pressure. Each borrower is required to attend a weekly meeting with other borrowers, all of whom are responsible for communal payback rates (the group can’t borrow more if individuals don’t pay back). Each borrower must also contribute to a personal savings account to help create a financial cushion while building a business.

It’s a model that is the antithesis of the big-bank system of recent years, in which the “know your customer” approach of the local savings and loans went out of fashion and the complex bundling of thousands of mortgages came in. The Grameen way recalls the Latin meaning of the word credit, which is “to believe in.” Grameen builds community at the same time it builds financial security among its members. “I think the financial crisis will be an opportunity,” said Yunus in a speech to borrowers last year, “to create an entirely new type of financial system.” At the opening of a branch in lower Manhattan this past May, Yunus pointed out that “Wall Street does banking to the world, but it doesn’t do banking for its neighbors. We are here to show there’s nothing wrong with banking with neighbors.” Indeed, they may be among the most creditworthy.


FULL story at link.

[underpants]

1. Do they have the advertising budget of PayDay Loan-sharks?

THAT is who is their competition.

[Omaha Steve]

2. OWH article

http://www.omaha.com/article/20090813/MONEY/708139946/0/FRONTPAGE

Published Thursday August 13, 2009

By Stefanie Monge

Tonya Ward of Omaha has wanted to start a nonprofit organization, Energy Rescue, for the past couple of years.

Energy Rescue would provide assistance to people who couldn't afford their utility bills. But Ward, a single mother of two whose income falls below the poverty line, was unable to get a small bank loan to move her idea forward.

And without funding, she was helpless.

“No bank would help me,” she said.

That changed last month, when Ward received a $1,500 loan from Grameen America, the microfinance institution that opened its second U.S. branch on June 29 in Omaha. The first U.S. office opened in the Queens borough of New York City in January 2008.

Grameen America is a subsidiary of Grameen Bank, an international nonprofit lending institution that provides small loans to women living in poverty in 100 countries.

Muhammad Yunus founded Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1976. In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize, and on Wednesday, Yunus was at the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. The award recognized Yunus' efforts to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship.

Grameen Bank says it distributes more than $100 million in loans per year and has a 98 percent repayment rate.

FULL story at link.