The world-renowned microcredit institution launched by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus may be bringing its star power to the Triangle in coming months, state business leaders confirmed this week.
Grameen America, the U.S. offshoot of the community development bank started in Bangladesh, has been in talks with the North Carolina financial community over the past two years about opening a branch in the state. Grameen Bank is one of the pioneers of microlending-a form of financing that extends small loans to the poverty-stricken and unemployed who have no other means of attaining credit.
"There is a collaborative environment in North Carolina and a level of support that we have not seen in other states," said Vidar Jorgensen, president of Grameen America and a native of Shelby, N.C. "[Coming to North Carolina] is entirely due to being invited here."
Among the locations under discussion for the bank's new site, the Raleigh-Durham area and Fayetteville are at the top of the list. Grameen America's final choice will depend on which local community can provide the $2 million required to get operations off the ground, Jorgenson said, adding that Grameen would eventually like to expand to several locations in the state.
North Carolina Commissioner of Banks Joseph Smith said he first approached Grameen officials about coming to North Carolina in 2007, "shamelessly soliciting" on behalf of the state.
"I read about them coming to the U.S. in the newspaper and being the competitive type, I wanted them here," Smith said.
Since then, financial institutions across the state have stepped up to lend their support-including the Durham-based community development organization Self-Help, the North Carolina State Employees' Credit Union, the North Carolina Bankers Association and regulators like the Commissioner of Banks and the Credit Union Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Yunus himself was in North Carolina earlier this month, meeting with business leaders and promoting the system of microfinancing in lectures at North Carolina Central University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The only other branch currently open in the United States is in the Queens, N.Y. Jackson Heights neighborhood, where Bengali immigrants have a strong presence. To date, the New York operation has lent $1.2 million to 440 low-income female entrepreneurs-99.5 percent of which has been repaid on time. Officials said although such a model was developed for impoverished people in developing nations, microlending has a high likelihood of success in developed nations as well.
"We're trying to pull together something beautiful," Smith said of the venture. "There will be some push and pull with [Grameen] changing their model to deal with American realities, but they've had very good success in Queens with their traditional, developing country model. We'll see if it works here."
With the state entrenched in the recession and unemployment approaching 9 percent, officials said banking solutions for low-income residents have become more of a priority.
"What [Grameen] is good at doing is getting people back to work, making those business loans and getting people engaged in income-earning," said Leigh Brady, senior vice president of education services at the State Employees' Credit Union. "Certainly with the unemployment in North Carolina, it would lend itself to believe that we need to do everything we can to help the economy and decrease the unemployment."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.