Originally published: Jun 26, 2008
Source: The Economist
For years Muhammad Yunus reigned as the public face of microfinance. It seemed only right when, in 2006, the Bangladeshi economist cum social entrepreneur and his Grameen Bank shared the Nobel peace prize for a micro-lending revolution that has helped millions to earn their own way out of poverty. Yet for the past year or so, microfinance has had another public face, one that troubles people like Mr Yunus. CompartamosBanco argues that the best way for microfinance to help the poor is for it to make a socking great profit.
Since Compartamos listed its shares for over USD1 billion in April 2007, it has stirred up an increasingly fierce debate. To Mr Yunus and its other critics, the Mexican bank is no better than an old-fashioned loan shark, earning its huge profits by charging poor borrowers a usurious interest rate of at least 79% a year. Perhaps sensing opinion turning against it, the bank has belatedly sprung to its own defence, issuing a defiant justification of its business in an 11-page “letter to our peers”. And it manages to make a convincing case for its strategy of fighting poverty with profits.
Read the complete article: Doing Good by Doing Very Nicely Indeed (The Economist)
Related articles:
- Compartamos Writes Letter to Microfinance Community (18 Jun 2008)
- Microfinance’s Success Sets Off a Debate in Mexico ( 7 Apr 2008)