Microfinance organizations are the companies which provide loan and insurance services to the less-privileged class of society. These organizations approve loans for people who want to get self-employed after meeting a certain set of pre-requisitions. In America, there are various microfinance organizations including Bank of American, Morgan Chase & Co, Berkshire Hathaway, and Citigroup for microfinance loans and insurance services. Once a loan is approved, these companies pre-define the procedure to pay back the loan after consulting the applicant. Microfinance companies are mostly non-profit organizations which help the people belonging to lower strata of the society and who are unable to fit within the banking institutions’ criteria to get self-employed by starting a retail setup or a company. The loans provided by microfinance institutions are in small amounts for a period of one year or less. The primary difference between a bank and a microfinance organization is the loans are not secured by mortgaging assets. Due to this reason, the services of microfinance organizations are attractive for people with comparatively less resources. In this article, we will discuss the Top 10 Largest Microfinance Companies in America as shared by Insider Monkey.
Kiva Microfunds is one of the microfinance organizations, providing loans to deserving people. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Kiva Microfunds was founded by Matt Flannery, Kiva and Jessica Jackley after learning about the Grameen’s Bank founder Muhammad Yunus. Kiva Microfunds started from initial loans of $3,500. As per available data, the organization has disbursed total loans worth of $1.4 million to date. At present, Kiva is associated with 300 social impact businesses, schools, microfinance institutions and non-profit organizations around the globe.
Another popular microfinance institution is Grameen America Inc. The company was founded by Professor Muhammad Yunus in 2008. It was initially launched in Bangladesh around 20 years ago. The result was great, and the institution pulled out several families out of poverty. After its success in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus launched it in American city of New York. The company started operations during the global recession of 2008 and it instantly became a success because the huge population of the city was without access to banks and loans services. Since its inception, Grameen America witnessed unprecedented growth and expanded to 15 US cities. There are various other microfinance organizations as well. You can read about those organizations in this article 13 Biggest Microfinance Companies in the United States.
