Grameen Bank (Bangladesh) to be brought under Central Bank jurisdiction in Bangladesh

The Grameen Bank, the Nobel Peace Prize winning microcredit organization of Bangladesh, will be brought under the control of country’s central bank to give the authorities more powers over the organization.
The decision by the government follows the recommendations of government-sponsored Grameen Bank Commission, which suggested bringing the bank under the regulatory control of either the Bangladesh Bank or the Microcredit Regulatory Authority to better monitor its activities.
Currently, the Grameen bank is being run by Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983 and it does not directly fall under the jurisdiction of the Banking Companies Act.
In 2011, the central bank of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Bank, removed Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the Managing Director of Grameen Bank citing age limit.

About Grameen Bank:

The Grameen Bank is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance organization and community development bank founded inBangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or “grameencredit’) to the impoverished without requiring collateral. Grameen Bank originated in 1976, in the work of Professor Muhammad Yunus, Professor at University of Chittagong, who launched a research project to study how to design a credit delivery system to provide banking services to the rural poor. In 2006, the bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2013