Even though the big news in Pakistan right now is about the newly elected Prime Minster, deteriorating diplomatic relations with the United States, and match fixing charges on star cricketers, there is a less publicized–but important story–that CNN published last week, “Family’s 20 Kids Highlight Pakistan’s Population Explosion.” The article warns that Pakistan is currently among the […]
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in New York recently to address the 66th session of the UN General Assembly. During her stay, she sat down for an interview with the WP. One of the topics discussed during the course of the interview was the impact of microcredit in Bangladesh. In December of last year, the […]
Dr. Md. Yunus has friends in high places. Everyone knows that. Under scrutiny following a Norwegian documentary that alleged financial malfeasance, Dr. Yunus was cleared of any accusations but remains squarely a target for the Awami League’s recrimination. Under the aegis of an ad hoc rule that Grameen Bank needed the central bank’s permission to […]
Over a phone call, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her support to Grameen Bank founder Dr. Md. Yunus. State Department spokesperson Phillip J. Crowley said that “Secretary Clinton spoke yesterday with Dr Muhammad Yunus and expressed support for the independence of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.” It’s not just that Mrs. Clinton offered […]
Dr. Mohammad Yunus has been fired from his role as managing director of Grameen Bank, essentially because he did not seek approval of his leadership role from Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, from the moment he turned 61. Really, that’s the reason he was fired earlier today. According to the New York Times: […]
The Times has published a good piece on Grameen Bank founder Md. Yunus growing troubles. Columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece some weeks ago on Grameen and, perhaps, due to his own work on women’s capabilities, he might have spread the word that this is a good story to follow. The Times piece does a […]
I had written quite critically on the charges that Grameen Bank founder Dr. Md. Yunus had engaged in accounting impropriety with development aid funds. Grameen Bank recently faced down allegations and was cleared of any wrong-doing. At the time I had written that this mishap provided an opportunity for stakeholders in the micro-finance industry to […]
Earlier today the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) cleared Grameen Bank’s moves to supply its private arm with development funds targeted for its non-profit works. The Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, the official who commisioned a Norad report on this affair offered this assessment: “There is no indication that Norwegian funds […]
If it weren’t already enough that the Norwegian government is trying to investigate Grameen Bank’s books from some fifteen years ago, now the local government, just down the street, sitting in Parliament is out for some explanations from Grameen Bank’s founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus. Sheikh Hasina has chastised Dr. Yunus for the micro-credit business model […]
There’s a new brew simmering in Bangladesh. It’s made of allegations, recriminations and excuses. This brew has to do with acts committed by the venerable founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus some fifteen years ago. This brew threatens to irreparably mar microcredit institutions, the poverty alleviation regime that over the last several years has gone private, virally, […]
The recent news that India’s microcredit industry is in dire straits should trouble Bangladeshi policy makers. Through a combination of credit-overreach and political demagoguery, Indian banks are facing the prospect of a wave of microcredit loan defaults. Given the nearly $4 billion risk exposure that banks have undertaken in entering into the recently booming microcredit […]