Grameen Bank was born on a day in 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, then the Head of the Rural Economics Program at the University of Chittagong, loaned $27 from his own pocket to 42 people in the tiny Bangladeshi village of Jobra. These women only needed enough credit to purchase the raw materials for their trades. The borrowers repaid his small loans promptly and inspired Yunus to establish the Grameen Bank Project, which then spread among villages and districts across Bangladesh with the help of his devoted students.

In October 1983, the Grameen Bank Project was transformed into an independent bank by government legislation. Professor Yunus founded the bank on a belief that credit is a basic human right, and that borrowers are not simply borrowing from a bank, but are committed to a philosophy built upon four core principles: discipline, unity, courage, and hard work. Today, Grameen Bank is owned by the borrowers of the bank and remains devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with microcredit loans that spark initiative and enterprise and empower the poor to lift themselves out of poverty.

As of 2008, Grameen Bank has disbursed more than 6.75 billion dollars to over 7.5 million borrowers, 97% of whom are women. The bank is represented in 2,499 branches and offers service in over 81,000 villages throughout rural Bangladesh. As a testament to the strength of the Grameen model, Grameen replication projects now number 141 programs in 38 countries. The vision of Grameen has created an effective and sustainable response to world poverty, and the bank’s success has advanced the concept of microcredit around the globe.

In 2006, Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”. He is widely regarded as the pioneer of the microcredit industry and continues to challenge conventional thinking, identify new ways to empower unbanked entrepreneurs, and explore new possibilities in microcredit around the world.