Innovation in Banking? - Yes!

Despite their staid image, bankers are innovators too. Well, at least some of them are. For example, there's that well-known banking innovator Jack Welch, who transformed General Electric from an industrial company into one from which half the revenues come from banking through its GE Capital arm.

Then there's Muhammad Yunus, founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, a micro-credit lender. Over its 30 years of innovation the bank has loaned more than $5 billion to more than 6 million people through its more than 2200 branches across the country. Loans are made without collateral, and the repayment rate is 98.8%. Yunus and Grameen were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year - and who would have ever expected a banker to win that one!

GE Capital's $500 billion in assets dwarf Grameen's, and its profits are many times greater as well, but look at how Grameen uses its profit: It made a profit of $ 15.21 million in 2005, and the entire profit was transferred to a Rehabilitation Fund created to cope with disaster situations. "This is done in fulfillment of a condition imposed by the government for exempting Grameen Bank from paying corporate income tax."

In San Francisco, meanwhile, a new bank has just opened, the New Resource Bank, which focuses on providing financing for green and sustainable businesses.

Yes, bankers innovate, too, and lot of them do it quite successfully!