Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank [Import] [Paperback]

Mohammad Yunus (Author), Alan Jolis (Author), Prince of Wales Charles (Foreword)

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd; New Ed edition (July 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1854109243
• ISBN-13: 978-1854109248
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,196,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good idea that led to great results, January 3, 2005

By 

Vincent Poirier (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Paperback)

In the 1970s Professor Mohammed Yunus had a great idea on how to help the poor of Bangladesh and he made it work. He invented micro-credit, or lending very small amounts to the poorest of the poor, without asking for collateral. This, rather than simple handouts, would help the poor become self-reliant enough so that they could lift themselves out of poverty. He concentrated on women. He relied on peer support to motivate repayment of the loans by making loans to one member of a group of women who would have access to credit only if the entire group had a good credit record (when a group started, they were assumed to have good credit). Professor Yunus's organization, the Grameen Bank, is a cooperative owned mostly by its members and boasts a repayment rate over 98%.

In the 30 years since Professor Yunus's first loan of 27 dollars, Grameen has now lent out billions to millions. It has liberated women in small villages, it has brought capitalist market mechanisms to the economic bottom 2% of the world population.

This first hand account by the American-educated Bangledeshi founder of Grameen Bank might not win any literary prize and it might end with a (I think) slightly naive vision of social work, but it effectively presents a simple story about a practical man who has made millions of the world's poorest people significantly better off.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Moving & Motivating!, June 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Hardcover)

If you know the story of Grameen Bank, and wanted to know more about the founder - I don't need to say anymore.

If you haven't heard of Grameen, prepare yourself to learn about a bank which has overturned the conventional wisdom about helping people who live in poverty.

Yunus' big idea can be put very simply: people who live on less than $1 per day (3 billion people) don't need to be tought how to feed themselves and survive - the very fact that they are alive is testament to their abilities.

His approach rests upon that faith in people's ability to help themselves, if given access to the very small amounts of loan capital they need to start a profitable venture - whether that is weaving cloth or repairing bicycles.

The road to reaching more than 2 million people in Bangladesh, and many other millions worldwide, wasn't smooth. What you get from reading this book is a sense that sometimes the 'homegrown' solution beats the 'imposed' ideas from the developed world.

A challenging book for liberals and conservatives alike!

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The pioneer of microlending..., March 1, 2004

By 

Ted (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Paperback)

The story of the Grameen bank is an excellent example of how social change initiatives can be combined with government and private industry support to acheive a greater outcome than the organization could acheive by itself. Yunus provides an excellent chronicle of his bank's formation as well as explaining its principles. Highly recommended for anyone interested in social entrepreneurship or social change. The only shortcomings are: 1) as a finance person, I would like to have read more about the operational side of the banks relative to their commercial competitors - what specific factors enabled them to be so successful (other than the broad social factors he identifies)? 2) Need more information about how these types of programs can be applied to industrialized nations such as the US.