View source for Grameen Bank

{{short description|Bank and microfinancer in Bangladesh}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Grameen Bank
| native_name = {{nobold|গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক}} 
| native_name_lang = bn
| logo = Grameen Bank Seal.svg
| logo_size  =  250px
| logo_caption  =  Badge of Grameen Bank
| type = Statutory public authority<ref name="bank_act">{{cite news |title=Grameen Bank Act 2013 |url=http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-1138.html |newspaper=Grameen Bank Act 2013 |access-date=30 December 2013 |archive-date=1 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240201084600/http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-1138.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
| founder = [[Muhammad Yunus]]
| area_served = [[Bangladesh]]
| key_people = [[Abdul Hannan Chowdhury]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Professor Abdul Hannan made Grameen Bank chairman |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/banking/professor-abdul-hannan-made-grameen-bank-chairman-932956 |work=[[The Business Standard]] |date=3 September 2024 |language=en}}</ref> (Chairman) <br />Sarder Akhter Hamed<ref>{{cite news |title=Grameen Bank appoints Sardar Akhtar Hamid as Managing Director |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/corporates/grameen-bank-appoints-sardar-akhtar-hamid-managing-director-1111066 |work=[[The Business Standard]] |date=8 April 2025 |language=en}}</ref> (Managing Director)
| industry = [[Bank]]
| products = [[Microfinance]]<br />[[Banking|Banking services]] <br />[[Retail banking|Consumer Banking]]<br />[[Investment Banking]]
| services = 
| revenue = 
| operating_income = 
| net_income = [[৳]]2360.49 million<ref name="2022annual">{{cite web |url=https://grameenbank.org.bd/public/assets/archive/annual_report/1707643963_Annual%20Reort%202022%20PDF_1_11zon-1.pdf |title=Annual Report 2022 |website=Grameen Bank}}</ref>
| net_income_year = 2022
| aum = ৳169.251 billion (members), ৳74.94 billion (non-members)<ref name="2022annual"/>
| assets = ৳301.05 billion<ref name="2022annual"/>
| assets_year = 2022
| equity = ৳26.920 billion<ref name="2022annual"/>
| equity_year = 2022
| num_employees = 18,203<ref name="2022annual"/>
| num_employees_year = 2022
| foundation = {{date and age|1983|10|2|df=y}}
| location = [[Dhaka]], Bangladesh
| num_locations = 2,568 branches (2022)<ref name="2022annual"/>
| homepage = {{URL|grameenbank.org.bd}}
}}

'''Grameen Bank''' ({{langx|bn|গ্রামীণ ব্যাংক}}) is a [[microfinance]], specialized [[community development bank]] founded in [[Bangladesh]].<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news |last1=Cosic |first1=Miriam |title='We are all entrepreneurs': Muhammad Yunus on changing the world, one microloan at a time |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/mar/29/we-are-all-entrepreneurs-muhammad-yunus-on-changing-the-world-one-microloan-at-a-time |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=9 August 2017 |date=29 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240626094701/https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/mar/29/we-are-all-entrepreneurs-muhammad-yunus-on-changing-the-world-one-microloan-at-a-time |archive-date=26 June 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=About us |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/about-us/ |website=Grameem Bank |date=2 March 2015 |access-date=9 August 2017}}</ref> It provides small loans (known as [[microcredit]] or "grameencredit")<ref name="What is Microcredit" /> to the impoverished without requiring [[collateral (finance)|collateral]].

Grameen Bank is a statutory public authority. It is originated in 1976, in the work of [[Muhammad Yunus]], a professor at the [[University of Chittagong]], who launched a [[research project]] to study how to design a credit delivery system to provide banking services to the rural poor. In October 1983, the Grameen Bank was authorized by national legislation to operate as an independent bank.

In 1998, the Bank's "Low-cost Housing Program" won a [[World Habitat Award]]. In 2006, the bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html |title=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 |publisher=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 |date=13 October 2006 |access-date=13 October 2006}}</ref>

The bank's success has inspired similar projects in more than 64 countries around the world, including a World Bank initiative to finance Grameen-type lending systems.<ref name="P.S">{{cite book |last=Khandker |first=Shahidur R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rNN3Dfxcc3oC&q=grameen+bank&pg=PR5 |title=Grameen Bank: Performance and Sustainability |author2=Baqui, M. A. |author3=Khan Z. H. |date=1995 |publisher=World Bank Publications |isbn=978-0-8213-3463-8 |page=vi}}</ref>

== History ==
[[Muhammad Yunus]] was inspired during the [[Bangladesh famine of 1974]], to make a small personal loan of US$27 to a group of 42 families, as start-up money so that they could make items for sale, without the burdens of high interest under [[predatory lending]].<ref>{{cite news |author1=Anand Giridharas |author2=Keith Bradsher |date=13 October 2006 |title=Microloan Pioneer and His Bank Win Nobel Peace Prize |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/business/14nobelcnd.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=13 October 2006}}</ref> Yunus believed that making such loans available to a larger population could stimulate businesses and reduce the widespread [[rural poverty]] in Bangladesh.
[[File:Muhammad yunus at weforum.jpg|thumb|Nobel Laureate [[Muhammad Yunus]], the bank's founder]]
Yunus developed the principles of the Grameen Bank from his research and experience. ''Grameen Bank'' is [[Bengali language|Bengali]] for "Rural" or "Village" Bank.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/history/ |title=History |website=Grameen Bank |access-date=25 December 2011}}</ref> He began a research project, together with a national commercial bank and the [[University of Chittagong]], extending microcredit to test his method for providing credit and banking services to the rural poor. In 1976, the village of Jobra became the first to be served by the project. Over the next two years, the project expanded to other villages in the area.<ref name="p4">{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Aminur |year=2001 |orig-year=First published 1999 |title=Women and Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh: Anthropological Study of the Rhetoric and Realities of Grameen Bank Lending |url=https://archive.org/details/womenmicrocredit0000rahm |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |location=[[Boulder, Colorado]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/womenmicrocredit0000rahm/page/4/mode/1up 4] |isbn=978-0-8133-3930-6}}</ref> The project, with support from the [[Bangladesh Bank]], was extended in 1979 to the [[Tangail District]] (to the north of the capital, [[Dhaka]]). The project's services expanded to other districts of Bangladesh over the next few years.<ref name="p4"/>

Through an ordinance of the [[Government of Bangladesh|Bangladesh government]] dated 2 October 1983, the project was converted into the Grameen Bank.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rahman |first=Aminur |year=2001 |orig-year=First published 1999 |title=Women and Microcredit in Rural Bangladesh: Anthropological Study of the Rhetoric and Realities of Grameen Bank Lending |url=https://archive.org/details/womenmicrocredit0000rahm |url-access=limited |location=[[Boulder, Colorado]] |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenmicrocredit0000rahm/page/4/mode/1up 4-5] |isbn=978-0-8133-3930-6}}</ref> Bankers [[Ron Grzywinski]] and [[Mary Houghton]], of [[ShoreBank]], a community development bank in Chicago, helped Yunus incorporate the bank under a grant from the [[Ford Foundation]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Brandon Glenn |date=16 October 2006 |title=ShoreBank leaders had hand in Nobel prize |url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20061016/NEWS01/200022455 |newspaper=Chicago Business News |access-date=15 May 2007}}</ref> The bank's repayment rate suffered from economic disruption following the 1998 flood in Bangladesh, but it recovered in subsequent years. By the beginning of 2005, the bank had loaned over US$4.7&nbsp;billion<ref>{{cite book |last=Papa |first=Michael J. |author2=Arvind Singhal |author3=Wendy H. Papa |year=2006 |title=Organizing for Social Change: A Dialectic Journey of Theory and Praxis |publisher=Sage Publications |page=72 |isbn=978-0-7619-3435-6}}</ref> and by the end of 2008, $7.6&nbsp;billion<ref>[http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=177&Itemid=144 Grameen Bank Historical Data]. Retrieved 22 June 2009.</ref> to the poor.

In 2011, the Bangladesh government forced Yunus to resign from Grameen Bank, saying that at age 72, he was years beyond the legal limit for the position.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Polgreen, Lydia |author2=Bajaj |date=2 March 2011 |title=Microcredit Pioneer Ousted, Head of Bangladeshi Bank Says |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03yunus.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=9 October 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=3 October 2013 |title=Bangladesh's controversial Grameen moves closer to central bank control |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-grameen-idINDEE99209O20131003 |access-date=6 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bornstein |first=David |date=22 August 2012 |title=An Attack on Grameen Bank, and the Cause of Women |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/an-attack-on-grameen-bank-and-the-cause-of-women/ |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=Opinionator |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Asadullah |first1=M. Niaz |last2=Wahhaj |first2=Zaki |date=9 January 2015 |title=Bangladesh's politicians should keep their hands off Grameen Bank |url=https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2015/01/09/bangladeshs-politicians-should-keep-their-hands-off-grameen-bank/ |language=en |website=[[East Asia Forum]]}}</ref>

Grameen Bank soon began expanding into wealthy countries. As of 2017, [[Grameen America]] had 19 branches in eleven US cities, and its nearly 100,000 borrowers were all women.<ref name=Guardian/>

In 2024, Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury was appointed as the new Chairman of Grameen Bank.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prof Abdul Hannan Chowdhury appointed Grameen Bank chairman {{!}} Business |url=https://www.bssnews.net/business/207415 |access-date=2025-06-03 |website=BSS}}</ref> 

As of January 2025, a proposed ordinance aims to reduce the government’s stake in Grameen Bank from 25% to 5%, while amending the Grameen Bank Act of 2013. The changes would lower the number of government-appointed directors from three to one and shift the election of the chairman from the government to the 12-member board. These measures seek to restore the bank’s governance to its pre-2011 framework, increasing control for microcredit borrowers and decreasing state involvement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grameen Bank ownership to see massive changes |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/dhaka/370275/govt-ownership-stake-in-grameen-bank-could-be |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Dhaka Tribune |language=en}}</ref>

==Funding==

"The bank has gained its funding from different sources, and the main contributors have shifted over time."<ref name="MorduchRole99">{{cite journal |last=Morduch |first=Jonathan |date=October 1999 |title=The role of subsidies in microfinance: evidence from the Grameen Bank |journal=Journal of Development Economics |volume=60 |issue=1 |page=240 |url=http://www.nyu.edu/projects/morduch/documents/microfinance/Role_of_Subsidies.pdf |access-date=16 January 2008 |doi=10.1016/S0304-3878(99)00042-5}}</ref> In the initial years, donor agencies used to provide the bulk of capital at low rates.<ref name="MorduchRole99"/> By the mid-1990s, the bank started to get most of its funding from the central bank of Bangladesh.<ref name="MorduchRole99"/> More recently, Grameen has started bond sales as a source of finance.<ref name="MorduchRole99"/> The bonds are implicitly subsidised, as they are guaranteed by the Government of Bangladesh, and still they are sold above the bank rate.<ref name="MorduchRole99"/> In 2013, Bangladesh parliament passed 'Grameen Bank Act,' which replaces the Grameen Bank Ordinance, 1983, authorising the government to make rules for any aspect of the running of the bank.<ref name="bank_act" />

== Donations ==
In 2016, Grameen America donated between $100,000 and $250,000, while Grameen Research, another Grameen arm, donated between $25,000 and $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation. When Muhammad Yunus was under investigation in Bangladesh over matters pertaining to oversight of a nonprofit bank, and had to resign from the bank's board, he also reportedly wrote to the Clintons, requesting help from the 'aides' on the matter. Yunus had to eventually step down as the managing director of Grameen Bank.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Yunus 'donated' to Clinton Foundation |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/world/north-america/3855/dr-yunus-donated-to-clinton-foundation |access-date=2024-12-18 |website=Dhaka Tribune |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2011-05-13 |title=Muhammad Yunus resigns from Grameen Bank |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/Muhammad-Yunus-resigns-from-Grameen-Bank/article13888828.ece |access-date=2024-12-18 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}}</ref>

== Application of microcredit ==
Grameen Bank is founded on the principle that loans are better than charity for reducing poverty. The bank believes that all people have the potential for upward social mobility.<ref name="What is Microcredit">{{cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=108 |title=What is Microcredit ? |publisher=Grameen Bank |access-date=11 March 2011}}</ref>
Grameen has offered credit to traditionally underserved groups including the poor, women, illiterate, and unemployed people, who lack access to formal financial services. Access to credit is based on reasonable terms, such as the group lending system, and weekly-instalment payments, with reasonably long terms of loans.<ref name="What is Microcredit"/>

Grameen's goal is to foster financial independence among the poor. Yunus encourages all borrowers to become savers, enabling local capital to fund additional loans. Since 1995, 90% of Grameen's loans have been financed through interest income and customer deposits, aligning the interests of borrowers and depositor-shareholders. Deposits collected in villages are converted into loans for others in the same communities (Yunus and Jolis 1998).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Yunus |first=Muhammad |year=2003 |title=Halving poverty by 2015—We can actually make it happen |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0035853032000111099.pdf |journal=The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs |volume=92 |issue=370 |pages=363–375 |doi=10.1080/0035853032000111099 |s2cid=153411343 |quote=Financially, [Grameen Bank] is self-reliant—it has stopped taking donor money since 1995, stopped taking loans from the domestic market since 1998. It has enough deposits to carry out its lending programme.}}</ref>

In a country in which few women may take out loans from large commercial banks, Grameen has focused on women borrowers; around 97% of its members are women.<ref name="grag"/> 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 straightforward.<ref name="D&S">{{cite journal |last1=Feiner |first1=Susan F. |last2=Barker |first2=Drucilla K. |title=Microcredit and Women's Poverty |url=http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/1106feinerbarker.html |journal=Dollar & Sense, the Magazine of Economic Justice |date=November–December 2006 |archive-date=19 February 2018 |access-date=5 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219151115/http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/1106feinerbarker.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Grameen has diversified the types of loans it makes. It supports hand-powered wells and loans to support the enterprises of Grameen members' immediate relatives. It has found that seasonal agricultural loans and lease-to-own agreements for equipment and livestock help the poor establish better agriculture.

{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:10px; width:30em; background:#f9f9f9; font-size:90%;"
|+ style="font-size:140%; background:#ccf;" | 16 Decisions of Grameen Bank<ref name="Decisions">{{cite web |url=https://grameenbank.org.bd/methodology/18-decision |title=Eighteen Decision – Grameen Bank |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250621195812/https://grameenbank.org.bd/methodology/16-decision |archive-date=21 June 2025}}</ref>
|-
| 1 || We shall reflect on the following four principles of Grameen Bank in every sphere of life to make it a prosperous organization through the members of the Center: ''Discipline, Unity, Courage, Hard Work''.
|-
| 2 || We shall improve our quality of life by bringing prosperity to our families.
|-
| 3 || We shall arrange for safe accommodation. We shall build improved and durable houses at the earliest.
|-
| 4 || We shall cultivate vegetables throughout the year, meet our own nutrition needs by having plenty of them, and increase income by selling the same.
|-
| 5 || During the planting season, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible to protect the environment and create our own resources.
|-
| 6 || We shall plan to keep our families small by having maximum two children. If possible, one will be the priority. We shall ensure all types of vaccinations for our children.
|-
| 7 || We shall ensure education of all children of the members of the center and shall educate them in technical and higher studies.
|-
| 8 || We shall keep our environment clean and tidy and ensure health care for all members of our families.
|-
| 9 || We shall use sanitary latrines and clean our hands with soap.
|-
|10 || We shall drink tube well water. We shall use pure water in every household work.
|-
|11 || We shall avoid dowry in the marriage of our sons and daughters, and shall not entertain child marriage. We shall confirm marriage registration.
|-
|12 || We shall treat everyone well. We shall live together in family and in society.
|-
|13 || We shall create new entrepreneurs to make our children self-reliant.
|-
|14 || We shall always help each other. If anyone in the center falls in any danger, we shall rescue him from the danger together.
|-
|15 || We shall be careful in conducting the transaction; we shall not transact without the passbook and shall keep the passbook with our own.
|-
|16 || We shall regularly attend the center meeting and we pay back our loan regularly.
|}


[[File:Grameen.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Grameen Bank Building in [[Dhaka]]]]
Grameen Bank is known for its system of [[solidarity lending]].<ref name="P.S"/> The bank incorporates a set of values embodied in [[Bangladesh]], by the ''Sixteen Decisions'' (updated to ''Eighteen Decisions'' in 2023).<ref>Siddiqui, Kamal, ''An Evaluation of the Grameen Bank Operation'' (Dhaka: National Institute of Local Government, 1984)</ref> At every branch of Grameen Bank, the borrowers recite these Decisions, and vow to follow them. As a result of the Eighteen Decisions, Grameen borrowers are encouraged to adopt positive social habits. One such habit includes educating children by sending them to school. Since the bank embraced the Sixteen Decisions, almost all Grameen borrowers have their school-age children enrolled in regular classes. This, in turn helps bring about social change, and educate the next generation.

Solidarity lending is a cornerstone of microcredit, and the system was used in more than 43 countries {{as of|1988|lc=y}}.  Repayment responsibility rests solely on the individual borrower. No formal joint liability exists, i.e. group members are not obliged to pay on behalf of a defaulting member. But, in practice the group members often contribute the defaulted amount with an intention to collect the money from the defaulted member at a later time. Such behaviour is encouraged because Grameen does not extend further credit to a group in which a member defaults.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hossain |first=Mahabub |title=Credit for Alleviation of Rural Poverty: The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh |orig-year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkrRrt_ao50C&q=grameen+bank&pg=PA7 |date=February 1988 |publisher=Int Food Policy Res Inst IFPRI |page=7 |isbn=978-0-89629-067-9}}</ref>

No [[legal instrument]] (i.e. no written contract) is made between Grameen Bank and its borrowers; the system works based on trust.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oneworldonepeople.org/articles/World%20Poverty/Grameen.htm |title=Grameen Micro-Credit & How to End Poverty from the Roots Up |author=Sinclair, Paul |date=22 December 2007 |publisher=One World One People |access-date=4 February 2008}}</ref> To supplement the lending, Grameen Bank requires the borrowing members to save very small amounts regularly in a number of funds, designated for emergency, the group, etc. These savings help serve as an insurance against contingencies.<ref name="P.S"/>

In other areas, Grameen has had high payback rates—over 98 percent. However, according to ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', in 2001, a fifth of the bank's loans were more than a year overdue.<ref name="wsj">{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/pearl112701.htm |title=Grameen Bank, Which Pioneered Loans For the Poor, Has Hit a Repayment Snag |author1=Daniel Perl |author2=Michael M. Phillips |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=27 November 2001 |access-date=25 March 2008}}</ref> Grameen says 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 US$4) loan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.social-capital.net/articles/view.php?viewid=151 |title=Microfinance comes of age |last=Fraser |first=Ian |date=3 August 2007 |work=Cover Story |publisher=Scottish Banker magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007072846/http://www.social-capital.net/articles/view.php?viewid=151 |archive-date=7 October 2007 |url-status=dead |access-date=30 January 2008}}</ref>

The bank is also engaged in social business and entrepreneurship fields. In 2009, the Grameen Creative Lab collaborated with the [[Yunus Centre]] to create the Global Social Business Summit. The meeting has become the main platform for social businesses worldwide to foster discussions, actions and collaborations to develop effective solutions to the most pressing problems plaguing the world.<ref>{{cite web|title=Challenge conventional economic models|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/business/challenge-conventional-economic-models-52404|website=The Daily Star|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141202015926/http://www.thedailystar.net/business/challenge-conventional-economic-models-52404|archive-date=2 December 2014}}</ref>

===Village phone program===
The bank has diversified among different applications of microcredit. In the Village Phone program, women entrepreneurs can start businesses to provide wireless payphone service in rural areas. This program earned the bank the 2004 Petersburg Prize, worth EUR 100,000, for its contribution of Technology to Development.<ref name="PP04">{{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 |date=27 July 2004 |publisher=Development Gateway Foundation (Washington, DC) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050804020340/http://www.developmentgateway.org/download/249636/Petersberg_winner.pdf |archive-date=4 August 2005 |url-status=dead |access-date=31 January 2008}}</ref> In the press release announcing the prize, the Development Gateway Foundation noted that through this program:

<blockquote>...&nbsp;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.<ref name="PP04"/></blockquote>

=== Struggling members program ===
In 2003, Grameen Bank started a new program, different from its traditional group-based lending, exclusively targeted to the beggars in Bangladesh.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/BeggerProgram.html |title=Grameen Bank's Struggling (Beggar) Members Programme |author=Yunus, Muhammad |date=July 2005 |publisher=Grameen Communications |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125101333/http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/BeggerProgram.html |archive-date=25 January 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=31 January 2008 |author-link=Muhammad Yunus}}</ref> This program is focused on distributing small loans to beggars.<ref>{{cite web |last=Barua |first=D. C. |title=Five Cents a Day: Innovative Programs for Reaching the Destitute with Microcredit, No-interest Loans, and other Instruments: The Experience of Grameen Bank |publisher=Global Microcredit Summit; Nova Scotia, Canada |location=Nova Scotia, Canada |date=12 November 2006 |url=http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/Workshops/7_Barua.pdf |access-date=20 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226233631/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/Workshops/7_Barua.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2008}}</ref>

===Housing loans===
In 1984, Grameen applied to the Central Bank for help setting up a housing loan program for its borrowers. Their application was rejected on the grounds that the US$125 suggested loan could not possibly build a suitable living structure.{{sfn|Yunus|2007|p=128|ps=: "In 1984 ... the Grameen Bank applied to the Central Bank for help in introducing a housing program to its borrowers ... The Central Bank rejected our application [because] whatever one built for $125 ... would not add to the 'housing stock of the country.'"}} So, Grameen instead proposed the idea of "shelter loans". They were again rejected, this time on the grounds that their borrowers could not afford non-income generating loans. Grameen changed tactics and applied a third time, this time to make "factory loans", the explanation being that borrowers worked from home, so the home was also a factory that made it possible for borrowers to earn income. Grameen was rejected for a third time.{{sfn|Yunus|2007|p=129|ps=: "We sent in a second application [to make] 'shelter loans.' ... [The Central Bank] argued that our borrowers ... could not afford loans that did not generate income to help them pay off their debt ... We said we wanted to offer our borrowers 'factory loans' ... their homes are places of work, we choose to call them factories ... [The Central Bank] rejected our application for a third time."}}

After this third rejection, Yunus, the bank's founder, met personally with the Central Bank governor to plead for their application. When asked if he thought the borrowers would repay the loans, he replied, "Yes, they will. They do. Unlike the rich, the poor cannot risk not repaying. This is the only chance they have." Grameen was then allowed to add housing loans to their range of services.{{sfn|Yunus|2007|p=129-130|ps=: "I arranged for a personal meeting with the Central Bank governor to ask him to override his bureaucrats. 'Are you sure the poor will repay?' the governor asked. 'Yes, they will. They do. Unlike the rich, the poor can't risk not repaying. This is the only chance they have' ... The governor [allowed] Grameen to introduce a housing loan program."}}

As of 1999, Grameen made housing loans totalling $190&nbsp;million to build over 560,000 homes with near-perfect repayment. By 1989, their average housing loan had grown to $300. That year, the Grameen housing program received the Aga Khan International Award for Architecture.{{sfn|Yunus|2007|p=130|ps=: "We have extended a total of $190&nbsp;million in loans to build more than 560,000 houses with near-perfect repayment ... Grameen's housing program was chosen in 1989 ... to receive the Aga Khan International Award for Architecture ... By 1989, the size of our typical housing loan had grown to $300."}}

== Operational statistics ==
Grameen Bank is owned by the borrowers of the bank, most of whom are poor women. Initially, of the total equity of the bank, the government owned 60% in 1983. This then dropped over time to a single-digit percentage by the early 2010s.<ref name="grag">{{cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=175 |title=Grameen Bank at a Glance |publisher=Grameen Communications |access-date=7 July 2009 |date=12 March 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fawcett |first=John |date=10 August 2012 |title=Grameen Bank Under Threat – And How You Can Help |url=https://results.org/blog/grameen_bank_under_threat_and_how_you_can_help |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=RESULTS |language=en-US}}</ref> However, by the mid-2010s, this number increased again to 25%.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Allchin |first=Joseph |date=15 February 2015 |title=Grameen Bank set to go under full government oversight |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/b237b790-b50f-11e4-b186-00144feab7de |access-date=6 September 2023}}</ref>

The bank grew significantly between 2003 and 2007. As of January 2022, the total borrowers of the bank number nearly 9.5&nbsp;million, and 96.81% of those are women.<ref name="2021annual">{{Cite web |url=https://grameenbank.org/public/assets/archive/annual_report/Annual_Report_2021.pdf |title=Annual Report 2021 |access-date=6 September 2023 |archive-date=5 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605175232/https://grameenbank.org/public/assets/archive/annual_report/Annual_Report_2021.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The number of borrowers has more than tripled since 2003, when the bank had 3.12&nbsp;million members.<ref name="gra2003">{{cite web |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/hist2003.html |title=Grameen Bank Historical Data Series 2003 |date=21 July 2004 |publisher=Grameen Communications |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115104725/http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/hist2003.html |archive-date=15 January 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=17 January 2008}}</ref> Similar growth can be observed in the number of villages covered. As of October 2007, the Bank had a staff of more than 24,703 employees; its 2,468 branches provided services to 80,257 villages,<ref name="grag"/> up from the 43,681 villages covered in 2003.<ref name="gra2003"/> By the end of 2021, the bank's coverage expanded to 81,678 villages out of the country's total 87,223, for a national coverage rate of around 94%.<ref name="2021annual" />

As of the end of 2021, cumulative loan disbursements since inception reached in excess of 2.5 trillion taka (US$33.767 billion),<ref name="2021annual" /> and the bank claims a loan recovery rate of around 95%.<ref name="grameen-info.org">{{cite web |title=Grameen Bank 2011-10 Monthly Report |url=http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=452&Itemid=526 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708185819/http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=452&Itemid=526 |archive-date=8 July 2008 |access-date=20 November 2011}}</ref> David Roodman has critiqued the accounting practices that Grameen used to determine this rate.<ref name="wsj"/>

The global number of potential micro-borrowers is estimated to be 1&nbsp;billion, with a total loan demand of $250&nbsp;billion. The present microfinance model served 100 million people with $25&nbsp;billion of loans as of the late 2000s.<ref name="DB Research">{{cite web|title=Microfinance:An emerging investment opportunity|url=http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000219174.pdf|publisher=DB Research|access-date=23 February 2012|archive-date=29 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091229014611/http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000219174.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Staff training==
{{no sources section|date=August 2024}}
The Grameen Bank staff often work in difficult conditions. Employees receive 6 months of on-the-job training, while shadowing qualified and experienced individuals from various branches of Grameen. The goal of this training is for the trainee to "appreciate the unexplored potential of the destitute" and to discover new ways to solve problems that arise within the Grameen branch. After completing the 6-month period, trainees return to Dhaka headquarters for review and critique before appointment to a bank branch.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

==Honours==
* In 1994, Grameen Bank received the [[Independence Day Award]], which is the highest state award of [[Bangladesh]].
* 13 October 2006, 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."<ref name="Nobel">{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html |title=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 |date=13 October 2006 |publisher=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 |access-date=13 October 2006}}</ref> The award announcement also mentions that:
<blockquote>''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.''<ref name="Nobel" /></blockquote>On 10 December 2006, Mosammat Taslima Begum, who used her first 16 euro (US$20) 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Yunus unveils vision to end global poverty |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/12/11/d6121101011.htm |agency=[[Agence France-Presse]] |newspaper=The Daily Star |date=11 December 2006 |access-date=31 January 2008}}</ref>

Grameen Bank is the only business corporation to have won a Nobel Prize. Professor Ole Danbolt Mjøs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in his speech, said that, by giving the prize to Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wanted to encourage attention on achievements of the [[Muslim world]], on the women's perspective, and on the fight against poverty.<ref>{{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 |date=13 October 2006 |publisher=The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 |access-date=4 February 2008}}</ref>

Citizens of Bangladesh celebrated the prize.<ref>{{cite news |date=15 October 2006 |title=Nation parties on Nobel win |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/10/15/d6101501011.htm |work=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]] |access-date=4 February 2008}}</ref> Some critics said that the award affirms [[neoliberalism]].<ref name="D&S"/>

== Related ventures ==
{{Main|Grameen family of organizations}}
The Grameen Bank has grown into over two dozen enterprises of the Grameen Family of Enterprises. These organisations 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]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.grameencommunications.com/gfamily.html |title=Grameen Family of Enterprises |date=28 November 2007 |work=Grameen Website |publisher=Grameen Communications |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822140351/http://www.grameencommunications.com/gfamily.html |archive-date=22 August 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=8 July 2009}}</ref>

On 11 July 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 more than 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 US$7.4&nbsp;billion.<ref>{{cite news |date=14 October 2006 |title=Credit where credit is due: The banker who changed the world |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1870835.ece |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |access-date=17 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322024256/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1870835.ece |archive-date=22 March 2007 }}</ref>

The Grameen Foundation was developed to share the Grameen philosophy and expand the benefits of microfinance for the world's poorest people.<ref name="GF2006">{{cite web |url=http://www.grameenfoundation.org/docs/resource_center/GrameenFoundation-AnnualReport2006.pdf |title=Grameen Foundation Annual Report 2006 |date=1 August 2007 |publisher=Grameen Foundation, Washington, DC, USA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226233629/http://www.grameenfoundation.org/docs/resource_center/GrameenFoundation-AnnualReport2006.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=31 January 2008}}</ref> Grameen Foundation, which has an A-rating from [Charity Watch],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html |title=Top Rated Charities |date=15 January 2008 |publisher=American Institute of Philanthropy |access-date=17 January 2008}}</ref> provides microloans in the USA (the only developed country where this is done), and supports microfinance institutions worldwide with loan guarantees, training, and technology transfer.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2006/statements/grameen.html |title=Grameen Foundation USA |work=25 entrepreneurs who are changing the world |publisher=Fast Company Monitor Group |access-date=29 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201172303/http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2006/statements/grameen.html |archive-date=1 December 2008 }}</ref> As of 2008, Grameen Foundation supports microfinance institutions in the following regions:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.grameenfoundation.org/where-we-work/ |title=Where we work |website=Grameen Foundation |access-date=20 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220033213/https://www.grameenfoundation.org/where-we-work/ |archive-date=20 February 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* '''Asia-Pacific''': [[Bangladesh]], [[China]], [[East Timor]], [[Indonesia]], [[India]], [[Lebanon]], [[Pakistan]], [[Philippines]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Yemen]]
* '''Americas''': [[Bolivia]], [[Dominican Republic]], [[El Salvador]], [[Haiti]], [[Honduras]], [[Mexico]], [[Peru]], [[United States]]
* '''Africa''': [[Cameroon]], [[Egypt]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Ghana]], [[Morocco]], [[Nigeria]], [[Rwanda]], [[Tunisia]], [[Uganda]]

From 2005, Grameen Bank worked on Mifos X, an open source technology framework for [[Core banking |core banking solution]]s. Since 2011, Grameen Bank released this technology under the stewardship of [[Mifos Initiative]], a US Non Profit organisation.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ahlawadhi |first1=Neha |title=IBM signs Rs 500 crore deal with microfinance firm janlakhsmi services |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/ibm-signs-rs-550-crore-deal-with-microfinance-firm-janalakshmi-financial-services/articleshow/38363005.cms |access-date=14 July 2014 |work=The Economic Times |date=14 July 2014}}</ref>

== Criticism ==
Some analysts have suggested that microcredit can bring communities into debt from which they cannot escape.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sharma |first=Sudhirendar |date=25 September 2002 |title=Is micro-credit a macro trap? |url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2002/09/25/stories/2002092500810900.htm |work=Business Line |access-date=2 December 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Sharma |first=Sudhirendar |date=5 January 2002 |title=Microcredit: Globalisation unlimited |url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2002/01/05/stories/2002010500111200.htm |work=The Hindu |access-date=2 December 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=6 April 2008 |title=The crushing burden of microcredit |url=http://www.france24.com/en/20080404-bangladesh-burden-microcredit-caring-grameen-bank-mohammed-yunnus |publisher=[[France 24]] |access-date=26 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315142122/http://www.france24.com/en/20080404-bangladesh-burden-microcredit-caring-grameen-bank-mohammed-yunnus |archive-date=15 March 2011 |author-link=France 24}}</ref> Researchers have noted instances when microloans from the Grameen Bank were linked to exploitation and pressures on poor families to sell their belongings, leading in extreme cases to humiliation and ultimately suicides.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mikrolånen har blivit en skuldfälla för fattiga (Swedish) |url=http://svt.se/2.151554/1.2329694/mikrolanen_har_blivit_en_skuldfalla_for_fattiga |publisher=SVT.se |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225110607/http://svt.se/2.151554/1.2329694/mikrolanen_har_blivit_en_skuldfalla_for_fattiga |archive-date=25 February 2011}}</ref>

The [[Mises Institute]]'s [[Jeffrey Tucker]] suggests that microcredit banks depend on subsidies to operate, thus acting as another example of welfare.<ref>{{cite web |author-link=Jeffrey Tucker |last=Tucker |first=Jeffrey |title=The Micro-Credit Cult. ''The Free Market'' |publisher=[[Mises Institute]] |date=November 1995 |url=https://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=215}}</ref> Yunus believes that he is working against the subsidised economy, giving borrowers the opportunity to create businesses. Some of Tucker's criticism is based on his interpretation of Grameen's "16 decisions", seen as indoctrination, without considering what they mean in the context of illiterate peasants.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mises.org/library/microcredit-or-macrowelfare-myth-grameen |title=Microcredit or Macrowelfare: The Myth of Grameen |last=anne |date=3 November 2006 |access-date=16 June 2016}}</ref>

The Norwegian documentary ''Caught in Micro Debt'' claims that Grameen evaded taxes. The Spanish documentary ''Microcredit'' also suggested this.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} The accusation is based on the unauthorised transfer of approximately US$100&nbsp;million, donated by the [[Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation]] (Norad), from one Grameen entity to another in 1996, before the expiry of the Grameen Bank's tax exemption. However, Norad published a statement in December 2010 clearing Yunus and the Bank of any wrongdoing on this point, following a comprehensive review of Norad's support commissioned by the Minister of International Development.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/report_grameen/id627366/|title=Report on Norwegian assistance to Grameen Bank|last=Affairs|first=Ministry of Foreign|date=7 December 2010|website=Government.no|language=en-GB|access-date=18 April 2017}}</ref>

Yunus denies that this is tax evasion:

{{blockquote|There is no question of tax evasion here. The Government has provided organisations with opportunities; we have made use of these opportunities with [the] aim of benefitting our shareholders who are the rural poor women of Bangladesh.<ref>[http://www.muhammadyunus.org/In-the-Media/a-full-transcript-from-the-press-conference-held-on-december-12-2010/] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218002413/http://www.muhammadyunus.org/In-the-Media/a-full-transcript-from-the-press-conference-held-on-december-12-2010/ |date=18 February 2012 }}</ref>}}

David Roodman<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cgdev.org/content/expert/detail/2719/ |title=David Roodman : Center for Global Development : CGD Experts |date=22 October 2009 |publisher=Cgdev.org |access-date=20 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220132652/http://www.cgdev.org/content/expert/detail/2719/ |archive-date=20 December 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and Jonathan Morduch<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nyu.edu/projects/morduch/ |title=Jonathan Morduch's Home Page |publisher=Nyu.edu |access-date=20 December 2009}}</ref> question the statistical validity of studies of microcredit's effects on poverty, noting the complexity of the situations involved.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/06/roodman-morduch-2009.php |title=New Challenge to Studies Saying Microcredit Cuts Poverty |work=David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog |access-date=20 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313231645/http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/06/roodman-morduch-2009.php |archive-date=13 March 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Yoolim Lee and Ruth David discuss how microfinance and the Grameen model in South India have in recent years been distorted by venture capitalism and profit-makers. In some cases, poor rural families have suffered debt spirals, harassment by microfinance debt collectors, and in some cases suicide.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Ethicist [[Peter Singer]] claims that microcredit has a limited ability to transform lives, and that other interventions are more effective.<ref>{{cite book |last=Singer |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Singer |title=The Life You Can Save |year=2019 |page=132}}</ref>{{Verify source|type=reprint|reason=The material preceding this tag needs to be fact-checked with the cited source(s). The 2009 and 2010 printings of the book fail verification.|date=March 2025}}

==Representation in other media==
* The film ''[[To Catch a Dollar]]'' (2010) documents the process of establishing [[Grameen America]] programs in [[Queens, New York|Queens]], [[New York City|New York]], in 2008. It premiered at the 2010 [[Sundance Film Festival]].
* The documentary film ''[[Living on One Dollar]]'' (2010) includes Grameen Bank providing [[microcredit]] to start small home businesses in a rural Guatemalan village.

== See also ==
{{Portal bar|Banks|Bangladesh}}
* [[Accion International]]
* [[Acción Emprendedora]]
* [[Accion USA]]
* [[Cooperative banking]]
* [[Count Me In (charity)|Count Me In]]
* [[Flat rate (finance)]]
* [[Grama Vidiyal]], Indian Microfinance Bank
* [[Islamic banking]]
* [[Kiva (organization)|Kiva]]
* [[Micro credit for water supply and sanitation]]
* [[Microgrant]]
* [[Opportunity International]]
* [[Project Enterprise]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== References ==
* {{cite book |last=Yunus |first=Muhammad |date=2007 |orig-year=First published 1999 |title=Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty |others=with Alan Jolis |location=New York |publisher=Public Affairs |isbn=978-1-58648-198-8 |title-link=Banker to the Poor}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Bornstein |first=David |author-link=David Bornstein (author) |date=2005 |title=The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518749-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Counts |first=Alex |date=1996 |title=Give Us Credit |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-8129-2464-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780812924640}}
* "Micro Loans for the Very Poor", ''[[The New York Times]]'', 16 February 1997
* {{cite book |last=Sachs |first=Jeffrey |author-link=Jeffrey Sachs |year=2005 |title=The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time |url=https://archive.org/details/endofpovertyecon00sach |url-access=registration |publisher=The Penguin Press |isbn=978-1-59420-045-8}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.grameen.com/   Grameen.com: official '''Grameen Bank''' website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205082314/http://www.grameen.com/ |date=5 February 2011 }}
* [https://www.grameen-info.org/   Grameen Bank old website]
* [http://www.grambangla.com/ GramBangla.com: Australian Bangladeshi Community Grameen Support Group]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140726215227/http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mygsb/faculty/research/pubfiles/848/Grameen_Bank_v04.pdf Grameen Bank: Taking Capitalism to the Poor], Mainsah, E. et al., Chazen Journal of International Business, Columbia Business School, 2004
* {{cite web |url=http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/289/ |title=Ending Global Poverty |publisher=MIT World |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060105005657/http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/289/ |archive-date=5 January 2006}} Video by Muhammad Yunus talking about Grameen Bank
* {{cite web |url=http://www.microsave.net/files/pdf/GRAMEEN_II_The_First_Five_Years_2001_2005.pdf |title=Grameen II: The First Five Years, 2001–2005 |last1=Rutherford |first1=Stuart |last2=Maniruzzaman |first2=Md |last3=Sinha |first3=S K |last4=Acnabin & Co |date=February 2006 |website=MicroSave |access-date=26 April 2016 |archive-date=10 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210042654/http://www.microsave.net/files/pdf/GRAMEEN_II_The_First_Five_Years_2001_2005.pdf |url-status=dead }}
* [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Grameen-Bank-Company-History.html Grameen Bank History]
* [http://www.france24.com/en/20080404-crushing-burden-microcredit-caring The crushing burden of microcredit] F24 international report
* [http://www.grameenamerica.com/ Grameen America – Grameen's microfinance operations in the US]
* {{Nobelprize}} with the prize motivation

{{Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 2001-2025}}
{{2006 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Gandhi Peace Prize laureates}}
{{Dhaka|state=collapsed}}
{{Good article}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Grameen Bank| ]]
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[[Category:Bangladeshi Nobel laureates]]
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[[Category:Development innovation in Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gandhi Peace Prize]]
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