Mission Grameen America is a microfinance company whose mission is to help alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship by providing loans, savings programs, credit establishment and other services to the working poor in the United States.

Grameen America provides Banking to the Unbanked.

The Poor in the US

• 36.5 million people live below the official poverty level in the U.S.
• Women are particularly burdened by poverty:
  • 20 million of the nation’s total
  • 13 million living in “deep poverty”
• One in five New Yorkers, or 1.5 million people live below the poverty line

Replacing Predatory Loans

• 28 million people in the U.S. are unbanked and 45 million people have limited access to financial institution
• The payday loan industry is very large and growing rapidly:
  • 2007 annual loan volume was more than $40 billion
  • Average annual interest rate (APR) of 400%

Grameen America: A Social Business

• A new business model that combines the power of the free markets with a socially driven mission
• A registered 501(c)(3) which seeks full cost recovery and social returns
• Every dollar contributed “lives many lives” making an ongoing impact

Grameen America’s Success in Queens, NY

Since launching in January 2008, Grameen America has lent over $858,000 We have 355 borrowers organized into 71 Groups and 36 Centers Loans range in size between $500 and $3,000 for 1st time borrowers and the average loan is $2,200 Directly managed by the Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus 99.34% repayment record

About Muhammad Yunus

Recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Professor Muhammad Yunus is internationally recognized as the father of microfinance. Started as a research project in 1976, Prof. Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh to reverse the vicious circle of "low income, low savings & low investment.” Grameen now operates in 38 countries providing collateral-free loans to over 7.5 million borrowers. The Grameen Bank has loaned out over US$7.2 billion to the poor, at a recovery rate of over 98%. Today Grameen Bank is owned by the rural poor whom it serves.