Muhammed Yunus: Banking the Unbankable

Yunus first developed the microlending concept as an economics professor at Chittagong University in Bangladesh, when he loaned $27 to a group of local women. By the time he and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for their efforts to help the impoverished, the bank had grown into an institution with $125 million in assets, and Yunus' innovative model influenced the creation of other microfinancial institutions around the world. Even the Dodd-Frank Act recognizes the benefit of microlending, authorizing the U.S. Treasury to establish a program of small-dollar loans and grants to bring traditional banking opportunities to the unbanked or underbanked in America.

Despite his accomplishments, Yunus was removed from his position at Grameen Bank in March. But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) defended Yunus, citing an "effort on the part of the Bangladeshi government to discredit" Yunus. "With Professor Yunus at the helm, Grameen Bank has played a leading role in a global movement to lift millions of the world's poorest people out of poverty using the innovative microcredit concept that he pioneered," Durbin wrote at the time.