With the notable exception of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, bankers have historically been depicted as bad guys in movies. In Mary Poppins, for example, the bankers were downright scary and Banks family doesn’t find genuine happiness until the father quits his “miserable” banking job. I wonder if recent developments will encourage Hollywood to find alternative industries to vilify and maybe even make a movie or two about good bankers.

The first stop for this screenplay would be Muhannad Yunus, the Bangladeshi banker and economist who won the Nobel Prize for creating a way for thousands of poor entrepreneurs to get small amounts of cash to start businesses. By establishing Grameen Bank, Mr. Yunus created an entirely new banking segment called microcredit that has now been emulated in 23 countries around the world including the United States. According to Wikipedia:

Many, but not all, microcredit projects also retain its emphasis on lending specifically to women. More than 96% of Grameen loans have gone to women, who suffer disproportionately from poverty and who are more likely than men to devote their earnings to their families.

If Mr. Yunus work is an Academy Award-winning epic, staring Ben Kingsley, then the folks at Prosper might inspire an enjoyable box office hit with a likable leading man like Hugh Grant. Prosper, like Grameen, is a new way to help people who need money get money but unlike Grameen, they are not a bank:

Prosper, America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace, was created to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone. The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper’s online auction platform.

It goes without saying that capital is essential to capitalism. Yet, traditional banking approaches have not always helped all those who really need it. Money, placed in the right people’s hands at the right moment, can be the difference between a self-sustaining future or a life of poverty, a world-saving invention or the status quo. While I don’t believe Gordon Gecko had it right with “greed is good”, a little green (as in cash) can do a lot of good. I will be watching with interest to see how Prosper helps others prosper.

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