Business
Prior to his live address at the AEO 2007 Annual Conference, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus spoke to attendees via satellite and discussed the need to fill the financial services gap in the United States through microfinance and microenterprise development services. Despite America’s enormous wealth, he points out, there are many whom it does not benefit. He also asks the question, "How many people in the United States do not qualify or are not eligible to get financial services from the conventional banking system?" Answering, he says, "You just count them, city by city, county by county--how many people simply do not qualify in the eyes of the conventional banking system? Our point is, banking and the financial services should be an inclusive system, not an exclusive system for the privileged people. So microfinance, microenterprise, all these initiatives, fill the gap."To learn more about how AEO and its members are working to fill this gap, visit http://www.microenterpriseworks.org/To learn more about Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank, go to http://www.grameen-info.org/To listen to this podcast, click here.