He is a Board member of a micro enterprise organization–Project Enterprise–developed on the Grameen Bank model—which was founded by Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-credit movement.
In the early 1980s, Houghton and Grzywinski worked with Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (Yunus and Grameen Bank received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize).
In addition to ShoreBank, Ron works with the boards of the Southern Development Bancorporation in Arkansas, the Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh, XacBank in Mongolia, the Aga Khan Foundation in Pakistan, and the Ashoka Global Academy in India.
World Bank | Bank of America | West Bank | Deutsche Bank | Bank of England | International Bank for Reconstruction and Development | African Development Bank | Asian Development Bank | Inter-American Development Bank | bank | South Bank | Lloyds Bank | Lloyds Bank (historic) | European Bank for Reconstruction and Development | National Australia Bank | Chase (bank) | West African Development Bank | State Bank of India | Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce | Royal Bank of Canada | Commonwealth Bank | Bank of New Zealand | Bank of Montreal | Bank for International Settlements | M&T Bank Stadium | Federal Reserve Bank of New York | Federal Reserve Bank | European Central Bank | Bank | Reserve Bank of India |
In the early years of BRAC (NGO) and Grameen Bank in the 1970s, both Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Fazle Hasan Abed tested cooperative approaches to delivering credit to poor people.
Quadir's vision of a large-scale commercial project led him to organize a global consortium involving Telenor, Norway’s leading telecommunications company; an affiliate of micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize); Marubeni Corp. in Japan; Asian Development Bank in the Philippines; Commonwealth Development Corp. in the United Kingdom; and International Finance Corp. and Gonofone in the United States.
His concept of microcredit and his desire to reduce the number of people living in poverty led to the creation of Grameen Bank to support people within Bangladesh, and then the Grameen Foundation for supporting people internationally.
Inspired by the Grameen model of Muhammad Yunus he started the SKS Microfinance (SKS stands for Swayam Krishi Sangam) to eradicate poverty and with an approach to profitability.
Madhyanchal Grameen Bank was formed by merging three rural banks in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India named Madhya Bharat Bank, Sharda Grameen Bank, Rewa Sidi Grameen Bank, sponsored by State Bank Of India, Allahabad Bank and Union Bank of India.
Early MFI village banking methods were innovated by Grameen Bank and then later developed by groups such as FINCA International founder John Hatch.