Nobel Peace ignores traditional banking
(11 March 2010 – Australia) At a luncheon for industry leaders this week in Melbourne, Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus urged bankers to forget conventional banking and to help alleviate poverty.
Professor Yunus set up Bangladesh-based micro lender Grameen Bank to distribute tiny loans to the poor, many of whom go on to build self-sustaining businesses, the Herald Sun reported.
The richer you are the more attractive you are to a conventional bank, Professor Yunus told the members at the luncheon.
Professor Yunus added that at Grameen Bank if a customer has absolutely nothing they are a prized client; the bank now lends out around US$100 million (A$109 million) in small loans to the poor.
In an effort to combat poverty, Professor Yunus urged the leaders from companies including NAB and BHP Billiton to break with convention and invest in business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region that help alleviate poverty, the Herald Sun reported.
When you forget this idea of making money, suddenly you are free, the aim of ventures is to solve problems not make money, Professor Yunus added.
The richer you are the more attractive you are to a conventional bank, Professor Yunus told the members at the luncheon.
Professor Yunus added that at Grameen Bank if a customer has absolutely nothing they are a prized client; the bank now lends out around US$100 million (A$109 million) in small loans to the poor.
In an effort to combat poverty, Professor Yunus urged the leaders from companies including NAB and BHP Billiton to break with convention and invest in business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region that help alleviate poverty, the Herald Sun reported.
When you forget this idea of making money, suddenly you are free, the aim of ventures is to solve problems not make money, Professor Yunus added.
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