This bank started under completely new principles, different than any other bank in Bangladesh at the time. Its premise was that each borrower had a human right to credit. The borrowers had to form groups of five people in order to provide some type of security on the loan. A loan was then given to two members of the group. After payments were successfully made for six straight weeks, the next two members could take out a loan from Grameen. The chairperson is usually the last person to obtain ability to borrow. The repayment terms for the loans follows five basic guidelines: (1) loans last one year, (2) installments on the loan are to be paid weekly, (3) repayment on the loan begins one week after the loan is extended, (4) the interest rate is 20% on the loan, and (5) repayment every week is 2% of the total loan for fifty weeks straight. This micro-credit program, started by Grameen, has been tested throughout Bangladesh and has even been expanded into much of the world today through similar programs of different names. This micro-credit system has been proven to work over and over again with minor variances on the major principles.
