Document serial number【LGGKGB-LGG98YT-LGGT8CB-LGUT-LGG08】 本周六EMBA管理决策国际观个案讨论内容 本周六11月7日EMBA「管理决策国际观」个案讨论内容 个案一、穷人银行/穷人保单 November 3, 2009 Posted: 1700 GMT Muhammad Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in “microcredit” which has helped millions of people out of the poverty cycle. The first businessman ever to receive such a high honor, Yunus has revolutionized conventional ways of banking, creating a system of lending small amounts to entrepreneurs with no collateral. Recently he has backed the Nobel committee's controversial decision to award the 2009 peace prize to . President Barack Obama. Yunus set up the Grameen bank in Bangladesh in 1983 (Grameen literally means "of the village" in Bengali), and has since disbursed about $8 billion to Bangladeshi micro-entrepreneurs, 97 percent of whom are women in businesses such as street vending and farming. The bank's concept is simple. “Credit is a basic human right”, says Yunus. “Offer even a small credit and a person will work out how to best use it to break free of poverty”. The average loan is just $220, and repayments are near 100 percent. This "microcredit" model has been copied all over the developing world. In 2009 during a global economic recession Grameen has been little affected according to Yunus. In fact it has now set its sights on helping the poverty-stricken in the . After the subprime mortgage meltdown and tougher standards by lenders, poor Americans deemed unworthy of credit by commercial banks now have somewhere to turn. Last year, Grameen opened a branch in New York City's Jackson Heights, an immigrant enclave just miles from the global center of finance, Wall Street. Yunus says the financial crisis offers an opportunity for businesses, banks and governements to revolutionize, and create a fairer economic system for the world's poor. Send your questions for the banker with a conscience below, and we’ll do our best to put them to Muhammad Yu