Bangladesh Trying to Seize Grameen Bank


Muhammad Yunus/ Flickr CC

  The Bangladeshi government put together a panel last year to evaluate the state of Grameen Bank, one of the first global microfinance institutions started by Nobel Prizewinner Muhammad Yunus.  Yunus has been a target of the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, since expressing interest in political office in 2007.  The panel has officially recommended forcibly breaking the bank down into 19 different institutions.  It also recommended to replace the bank’s board of directors with members of the government.

  Many prominent leaders are against government intervention in the bank, and two open letters were published in the media this week, urging Prime Minister Hasina not to implement the panel’s recommendations.  The first letter was signed by forty prominent world and business leaders, including billionaire and philanthropist Richard Branson.  It was also signed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker, former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, Madeline Albright, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, and Kerry Kennedy, who runs the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.  Another letter, signed by 32 female members of the United Stated Congress, highlights that such a move by the Bangladeshi government would undermine all the women borrowers of the Grameen Bank. 

  So far the Bangladeshi government is not commenting on the letters.  It has also not announced a decision about Grameen Bank.  It is unclear what Hasina will do next.

Sheikh Hasina Wajed / Flickr CC
  Grameen Bank was founded by Muhammad Yunus in 1976.  Yunus is a native of Bangladesh and   The bank specializes in giving small loans to the very poor in order to help them improve their quality of life.  Over ninety percent of loan recipients are women, and the bank boasts a 97% return rate.
was a professor of economics before creating Grameen and subsequently making the practice of microfinance internationally recognized.

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