PRESS RELEASE: United States: Grameen Trust and Fundacion Carlos Slim Launch the $45 Million Grameen Carso Microfinance Program

Original press release available online.

NEW YORK, September 24 – Grameen Trust and Fundacion Carlos Slim A.C., the family charitable foundation of Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu, have officially launched the Grameen Carso.

The official documents have been signed and the operation is off to a strong start, first in Oaxaca and then throughout Mexico. As of September 19, 2009, Grameen Carso has 265 members of which 195 have received their first loan. The project has disbursed a total of US$49,620.00 and the average loan size is $267.00. Grameen Carso has been able to maintain a 100% recovery rate, working 100% with women borrowers.

Foundation Carlos Slim will initially deploy $5 million in grant funding and guarantee $40 million for microcredit loans. Grameen Carso will focus on Mexico’s poorest residents in an effort to create income generating opportunities and help lift them to a higher standard of living. Furthermore, Grameen Carso intends to issue microcredit loans at interest rates lower than those currently offered by other microcredit providers in Mexico. This will be a social business — all profits of the joint venture will be recycled back to expand operations.

Grameen Trust is managing the operations of Grameen Carso through a team of four microcredit experts from the Grameen Trust who arrived in Mexico during June of this year. Grameen Carso will initially focus its operations in the southern state of Oaxaca. Within three months of operating in Mexico and through the tenacious efforts of the newly trained and hired local Mexican staff, Grameen Carso has established the project office in Oaxaca and three separate branches in Miahuatlan, Huajuapan, and Oaxaca. The first micro-credit loan was proudly disbursed, July 3rd 2009.

All four members of the Grameen Trust team have had a long and distinguished career in Grameen Bank. Country Manager Mr. Shamsul Alam Khan Chowduty, joined the Grameen Bank in 1979. From 1996 to 2003 he served as the Deputy General Manager of the Grameen Bank. In addition, Mr. Shamsul implemented the Grameen BOT Turkey project from 1996 to 2008, a very successful project with now over 25,000 borrowers. Based on his exemplary work experience in Bangladesh, Turkey and elsewhere, he has been designated by Grameen Trust as the Country Director for Grameen Carso. The three other Grameen officials also have a long distinguished history with the Grameen Bank and Microfinance operations. S.M. Nurul Kabir is currently responsible as branch manager for the Oaxaca branch and with team support made the first loan disbursement July 3rd. Mr. Kabir joined the Grameen Bank in 1986 and served as a Senior Principle Officer since 2001. He also has experience working as a Grameen consultant in Myanmar from 1997 to 2001. MD. Moshiar Rahman is responsible for the Miahuatlan branch and the first loan disbursement was made on August 28th. Mr. Moshiar joined Grameen Bank in 1986 and served as a Senior Principle Officer since 2005. Mr. Swapan Kumar Mondal is responsible for the Huajuapan branch and the first loan disbursement was made on September 4th. Mr. Swapan joined the Grameen Bank in 1985, and served as Senior Principle Officer from 1998. The four Bangladesh staff are all eager and fully committed to the implementation of a successful Grameen BOM project in Mexico, working very hard in learning Spanish and are all continuing to progress rapidly in the operations of each of their respective branches. With over 100 years of Grameen Microfinance experience among all four, this is one of the largest and most experienced management teams Grameen has committed to a project outside of Bangladesh.

Using the continuous group training lending model pioneered by Grameen, Grameen Carso is providing small microcredit loans to poor individuals to enable them to create or expand small entrepreneurial initiatives. These loans will not require collateral and instead will use a system of mutual support among the borrowers to encourage repayment. Based on Grameen Bank’s success in Bangladesh, where it serves almost 8 million borrowers, and the success of other Grameen initiatives around the world, the joint venture expects that income from entrepreneurial activities will provide borrowers with a path out of poverty and a foundation for development of family health, education, and general welfare. Like the Grameen Bank, Grameen Carso expects to concentrate on loans to women, because experience has shown that the benefits to the children and families are greater when the loans go to women.

Grameen Carso reflects the commitment of Fundacion Carlos Slim to greatly expand microcredit in Mexico for the benefit of persons who are excluded from the traditional banking system.

Professor Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank and shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with the bank, said, “We are very pleased with the start in Mexico and the enthusiasm and work orientation of our growing number of Mexican employees and borrowers. Grameen Carso as all the essential elements of a large and long term success. Through the entrepreneurial initiatives of borrowers and the education and financial training that are provided through the Grameen lending model, borrowers build economic foundations for themselves and for their families and they focus on improving their families’ education, health, and general well-being. Grameen has shown that microcredit programs can be an economic success without charging exorbitant interest rates. I am excited by the opportunity to bring the Grameen model of microcredit to Mexico on a large scale and I am very pleased that Mr. Slim and his foundation for providing the resources necessary to make Grameen Carso a reality. We welcome ideas and recommendations for improving the lives of the poor in Mexico and elsewhere”.

Grameen Trust

Grameen Trust (GT) was formed by Professor Muhammad Yunus in 1989 as a non-profit non-governmental organization to support microfinance activities outside of Bangladesh . Mr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in alleviating poverty around the world. On August 12, 2009 Professor Yunus was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House by President Obama for his work. This is the highest civilian honor awarded by the US government. At Grameen credit is a cost effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the over all development of socio-economic conditions of the poor who have been kept outside the banking orbit on the grounds that they are poor and hence not bankable.

Grameen Trust’s purpose is to support and manage microcredit projects all over the world that use the Grameen lending model to alleviate poverty. To date, Grameen Trust has supported 141 microcredit projects in 38 countries. Currently, nine of these projects are so-called Build-Operate-Manage (BOM) projects in which Grameen Trust directly implements the projects in order to achieve rapid implementation. The Grameen Carso project will be a BOM project.

Fundacion Carlos Slim

Fundacion Carlos Slim was organized and founded in 1986 by Mr. Carlos Slim Helu. The foundation’s main purpose is to alleviate and reduce poverty through the application and performance of high impact programs focused on specific areas such as nutrition, health, education and the creation of more and better labor opportunities within the Mexican society. In addition Fundacion Carlos Slim also promotes and support sports, justice, environmental care, and cultural activities, including Museo Soumaya.

The programs sponsored and developed by Fundacion Carlos Slim, and focused on educational and health areas, address the following: Pregnancy care, perinatal and early stimulation programs (“Amanece”); medicine research; interactive medicine; healthy home; social franchises (“Casalud”); educational support for the vision impaired (“Ver para Aprender”); Ayudame a llegar “Help me to Reach”; Operacion Sonrisa “Smile Operation”; e-learning scholarships; graduate and post graduate scholarships; organ transplant (“FUNAT”); home based interactive culture and interactive alphabetization by means of Telmex interactive e-classroom and Telmex interactive e-library; human growth and development (“ASUME”); social bonds; and sports promotion (Telmex Cup; Telmex Basketball League; Telmex Box Ring) amongst others.

Fundacion Carlos Slim, supports employment in Mexico through financing PYMES and by constant and intensive investment in the labor force. Together and in coordination with other entities with similar goals and pursuits such as Alas, Clinton Global Initiative, Worldwide Fund, etc., Fundacion Carlos Slim, encourages the study for the development of the capitalization of enterprises (matching funds), and the preservation of biodiversity, maintenance and procurement of protected areas and global warming.

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