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Grameen America, a micro-lender whose founder won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to extend credit to the poor, may be considering Charlotte as a site for a new branch.
Officials of the New York-based bank plan to meet Sept. 3 with representatives of Charlotte banks, foundations and other potential funding sources. They'll also meet with members of the city's growing immigrant and refugee communities.
“We're just trying to present the best face we can,” said Patrick Chang, who put the bank in touch with other Charlotteans. “With the growth in the refugee immigrant population in our county and in the state, it makes all the sense in the world.”
Grameen America offers small loans to entrepreneurs who typically have a hard time getting any. Since opening its first U.S. branch in New York City in January 2008, the bank has lent over $2.3 million to people at or below the poverty line.
A second branch opened this year in Omaha. The nonprofit has been looking at other sites, including the Raleigh-Durham area.
After reading about the bank's overtures in North Carolina, Chang, the multicultural advocate for the Mental Health Association of Central Carolinas, asked it to consider Charlotte. One of the Charlotteans he went to was John Lassiter, chairman of the City Council's economic development committee.
Lassiter, who is running for mayor, has helped line up Charlotte contacts for the bank.
“The question is do all the pieces come together?” Lassiter said. “These are those first conversations.”
The Grameen Bank was started in Bangladesh in the 1970s by Muhammad Yunus, who holds a doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt. He won the Nobel Prize in 2006. Two weeks ago President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“Good results in New York, and now in Omaha, are showing that microcredit is an effective way to fight poverty and provide opportunity to poor people – whether in Bangladesh or the United States,” Yunus told reporters in Washington.
In a February news release, Grameen America said it had been encouraged to come to North Carolina by financial services representatives including the N.C. State Employees Credit Union, the North Carolina Bankers Association and the Credit Union Division of the Department of Commerce.
It said it was lining up financial support and could begin lending “once that support is finalized.” Bank officials could not be reached Monday.
Jim Morrill: 704-358-5059
