Microlending Pioneer Says Bangladesh Seeks to Control Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank, said recent moves by Bangladeshi officials to exert control over the trail-blazing microfinancing bank presage a government takeover, writes the Associated Press.

A proposed law change approved Thursday by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet would allow Grameen’s government-appointed chairman to hire a managing director, an authority now held by the bank’s board of directors.

The bank, which helped develop the practice of issuing small loans to the very poor to start businesses, has been without a managing director since Mr. Yunus was ousted last year in a dispute with Bangladeshi authorities over his serving beyond the legal retirement age.

The government move came amid a probe of the compensation paid to Mr. Yunus at Grameen and the bank’s association with dozens of private businesses. He has attributed the rift to political rivalry.

“I am very disheartened to see that the poor people are being deprived of the ownership of the bank,” Mr. Yunus said. “I had always apprehended this. Now my apprehension is going to be a reality.”