Analysis of the experience of the Grameen (rural) Bank of Bangladesh. It "represents a radical institutional innovation because it provides collateral-free loans and various social services to poor Bangladeshis yet maintains a loan recovery rate of 98 percent." Founded as an action research project in 1976, The Grameen Bank has diffused to 50 of the nation's 64 districts and has more than one million members, 92 percent of whom are women.