A Way out of a Lending Quagmire (07/14/2013)
An initiative led by University of Notre Dame undergraduates started making installment loans in March, and the first three borrowers have paid back the loans. Read how work in India led a Notre Dame finance major to create an alternative to predatory lending in his community. Student Peter Woo “was working with Maitri Pune, a nongovernmental organization in India the summer after freshman year when, because he was a finance major at Notre Dame, Maitri asked him to do research on tribal lending. He discovered that thousands of tribal farmers had committed suicide because they were desperately in debt. ‘That got me interested in the concept of finances and the way they play a role in someone’s life,’ he says.” His new microlending organization in the South Bend area has so far been successful, giving clients an alternative to shady, predatory loaners and earning the support of Bridges Out of Poverty. Read more…
View as PDF: A way out of a lending quagmire
