Glasgow to get branch of sustainable bank

A new sustainable banking project is being set up in one of the UK’s most deprived districts.

Residents of Sighthill in Glasgow are to be given the chance to use micro-finance charity banking services from the Grameen Bank, the BBC reports.

Set up by Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus in 1970s Bangladesh, the bank offers customers small loans to help them set up their own businesses.

Criteria for borrowers are far more relaxed than those found among high street banks - meaning that community access to the credit is far wider.

Despite these loose controls, Grameen claims that 98 per cent of the loans are repaid - and that the financing helps to lift deprived areas out of poverty.

Dr Yunus told the broadcaster: ’We lend money to the poorest people, poorest women in Bangladesh. No collateral, no guarantee, no lawyers, and it works.’

Social Investment Scotland chairman Ray Perman added: ’I think if we can somehow enthuse people with the vision of getting over this terrible problem we’ve had for three decades now, of eradicating poverty and under-achievement in Glasgow we could make it work.

’Trying something new, even something new coming from Bangladesh, has to be worth a shot.’ADNFCR-2318-ID-19253594-ADNFCR