Monday, May 5, 2008

Micro-financing: Coming Soon to New York

New York is often viewed as the leader in banking with the rest of the world taking notes and cues from the giants in Manhattan. But the city of banking and finance may have overlooked some of its own.

Noble laurate Muhammad Yunus announced that Grameen Bank will be opening its first branch in the Big Apple.

Al Jazeera News Reports:

Grameen Bank, the micro-credit financier initially set up to help the poorest in Bangladesh, has opened its first branch in the United States.

The Bangladesh-based outfit known as the poor people's bank plans to hand out loans to the less well-off in one of the most ethnically-diverse neighbourhoods in the US.

...

Muhammad Yunus, who founded the bank in 1976, said the branch in Queens, New York City, was to cater to thousands of new immigrants without access to basic banking services.

"People consider this audacious," he told Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey.

"They think 'What you come from Bangladesh to do banking in NYC? That sounds so ridiculous. This is [the] city where [the] whole world learnt banking from'."

But the Nobel laureate said New York also had its share of poor people just like any other city "so we are actually working in [a] third world" environment.

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