Microcredit as a tool for financial and social inclusion: grameen bank and microbank

Abstract

Microcredit is a financial tool essential to eradicate poverty in developing countries and to end financial exclusion in developed countries. The Grameen Bank was created by Muhammad Yunus, the founder of microcredit; it has become the most famous financial institution dedicated to microcredits worldwide. The growth of Grameen Bank has been spectacular, coming to accumulate 10,124 million dollars in microcredits in 2010. In 2013, Manos Unidas claimed that 64% of Grameen borrowers exceeded the poverty line thanks to microcredits. The MicroBank was created in 2007 as the social bank of "La Caixa". At present, it is the only bank specialized in microcredits in Spain and aims to be the European social banking reference. In just six years, it has come to accumulate 1,293 million Euros