Muhammad Yunus: Framework for a Better Future
The Promise of Social Business
In his British Council lecture at the Royal Institute of British Architects on 29 May, founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Muhammad Yunus, presented an astounding history of his alternative banking model. Neither loan-shark nor charity, a social business such as Grameen bank was set up to make a social impact, benefiting both lender and borrower in the process.
Read excerpts below, or follow links to video, audio and transcript.
Excerpts from the Lecture
'I have sometimes jokingly said, ‘This is a strange kind of bank, because everything we do is just the opposite of the conventional banks. Whenever they do something, we notice, and we try to do it the other way. And it works. They go to the rich; we go to the poor. They need collateral; we do not need collateral. They need lawyers; we do not need lawyers. And still it works. The whole of this banking is, in a way, trust-based banking. There is no legal connectivity between the borrower and the lender.
'They told me in 1976 that poor people are not credit-worthy.'
They told me in 1976 that poor people are not credit-worthy. Since then, the repayment of the Grameen programme has remained near 100% at around 98% or 99%. Today, that idea has expanded all over the world. We have had the same experience wherever it went: repayment is very high, near 100%, without any collateral, without any guarantee, or anything. 2009 is a good year to ask the same question again: who is credit-worthy? Is it the large banks with large clients? They cannot obtain their money back. They are collapsing, going bankrupt, whereas the poor people taking tiny loans, without collateral, are paying every penny of it, and changing their lives.'
This lecture was part of the Talking without Borders series.
Downloads
Transcript: Framework for a better future (Acrobat PDF - 84.1KB)
Videos of the entire lecture on Youtube (opens in new window)
Audio of the speech, Part 1: Framework for a better future (wmx - 96 bytes)
Audio of the speech, Part 2: Framework for a better future Q&A (wmx - 92 bytes)
