Expanding Dr. Yunus’ Sphere of Influence

Credit without Collateral is the principle and Social Business is the framework by which we can change a world suffering from poverty into a world of sustainability for our planet.

The key ingredients to the success of Grameen Bank are to consider illiterate women not only creditworthy but also able to run their own enterprises.

‘Credit without Collateral’ can thus mean to give credit where nobody else does.

In the UK, the equivalent to the Grameen Bank is provided by ‘credit unions‘. But rules and regulations are complex and off-putting.

How banks legally enforce the repayment of debt and thus the sale of collateral is part of the Struggle Against Financial Exploitation in the UK.

For poverty in the UK means overindebtedness, repossessions, suicides and bankruptcies.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ‘credit‘ means reliance on the truth or reality of something.

In terms of ‘credit’ as the key to ‘capital’, I see the stepping stones from ‘microcredit’ a la Grameen to ‘Green Credit for Green Growth‘ for governments and ‘mutual credit’ as Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS).

Since I started the first LETS in London as the ‘Green Money Network’, I am pleased that there is now the software necessary with which to reward volunteers for their time. And thus we have set a ‘Yunus process’ in motion that will reveal its surprises and potential as we commit ourselves to putting ’social businesses’ on the map.