The number of borrowers had more than doubled since 2003, when the bank had only 3.12 million members. In October 2007, the Bank had a staff of over 24,703 employees and 2,468 branches covering 80,257 villages. There were 43,681 villages covered in the year 2003.
Since its start, the bank has loaned 347.75 billion taka (USD 6.55 billion). 313.11 billion taka (USD 5.87 billion) has been repaid. The bank says 98.35% of loans are repaid. In 1998, 95% of loans were repaid. However, many critics doubt this recovery rate and the definition that Grameen uses to come up with this rate.
Grameen Bank received awards such as, the Bangladesh Independence Day Award, in 1994. The bank got its best known award on 13 October 2006, when the Nobel Committee awarded Grameen Bank and its first member, Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." The Nobel Foundation says:
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.
Mosammat Taslima Begum, used her first loan of 16-euro (20-dollar) 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. She collected the Nobel Prize for Grameen Bank on 10 December 2006, at the prize awarding ceremony in Oslo City Hall.
Grameen Bank is the only business to have won a Nobel Prize. In a speech given at the presentation ceremony, Professor Ole Danbolt Mjøs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said that, by giving the prize to Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wanted to make more contact with the Muslim world, to help women, and on to fight against poverty.
The people in Bangladesh were very happy with the Nobel Prize. Some critics asserted that the award affirms neoliberalism.
The Grameen Bank has grown into over two dozen groups called the Grameen Family of Enterprises. These groups 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).
On 11 July 2005 the Grameen Mutual Fund One (GMFO), was listed as an Initial Public Offering. One of the first mutual funds of its kind, GMFO will allow the over four million Grameen bank members, as well as non-members, to buy into Bangladesh's capital markets. The Grameen group is worth over USD 7.4 billion.
The Grameen Foundation was based on the work of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and they want to share the Grameen ideas and hurry microfinance to the worlds poorest people. Grameen Foundation USA, which has an A- rating from Charity Watch, supports microfinance institutions worldwide with loan guarantees, training, and technology transfer. As of 2006, Grameen Foundation supports microfinance institutions in the following regions:
Sudhirendar Sharma, a development analyst, says that the Grameen Bank has "landed poor communities in a perpetual debt-trap", and that its ultimate benefit goes to the corporations that sell capital goods and infrastructure to the borrowers. Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who said, "There is no difference between usurers [Yunus] and corrupt people." Hasina also says the bank wants too much in return for the loans. Loans from Grameen Bank cost more than bigger banks, around 20% interest. The Mises Institute's Jeffrey Tucker says that Grameen Bank is not good enough for Indias economy and is a way of giving money to people who are not working.
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