Banking the Unbanked

Synopsis

Ever since microfinance entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, microfinance projects have played a growing role in international development. For executives like Reliance Financial CEO Baboucarr Khan and COO Ismaila Faal, the field offers opportunities to raise people out of poverty - and to make money. BANKING THE UNBANKED is a verité documentary that follows Khan, Faal and other members of the Gambia-based Reliance team as they try to build the bank into a viable West African financial institution. Their target clients: those who make under five dollars a day - taxi drivers, small shopkeepers, seamstresses, fishermen.

Running the company weighs heavily on Khan. We see his frustration when construction on a new branch is not only sloppy but also behind schedule. And he is taken to task by the board of directors for an outburst against the Central Bank of Gambia - Reliance’s regulator - after it issues a scathing report on some of the bank’s practices. Meanwhile, members of the Reliance senior management team participate in an executive leadership program run by a Dutch university. As Reliance falters, microfinance consultant Craig Feinberg urges a harder line on defaulting creditors - and suggests the possibility of getting out of small loans altogether, concentrating instead on wire transfers and foreign exchange. The film captures the tension and drama in the surprisingly cut-throat world of microfinance - a world where many small loans add up to a whole lot of money. Can promoting development by lending to those at the bottom of the economic ladder co-exist with the need to provide investors with attractive rates of return?

Language

English

Country

Netherlands

Year of release

2010

Year of production

2010

Subjects

Development studies; Economics; Geography

Keywords

Africa; banking; debt; developing countries; financial institutions; Gambia, The; microcredit

Credits

Director

Sarah Vos

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 1 NTSC

Price

$390.00

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

56 minutes

Year

2011

Distributor

Name

Icarus Films

Email

mail@icarusfilms.com

Web

http://icarusfilms.com/ External site opens in new window

Phone

+1 718 488 8900

Fax

+1 718 488 8642

Address

32 Court Street
21st Floor
Brooklyn
NY 11201
USA

Notes

A US distributor with an extensive collection of mainly independently-made documentary films from around the world on social, arts and humanities topics. Dedicated to distributing films about people and ideas too often unseen or unheard. Not all titles are for sale on DVD or digital streaming outside the US. Previouslyknown as First Run/Icarus Films.