Bangladeshi banker wins Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus and the bank he founded to deliver small loans to impoverished people have been selected for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Yunus, 66, who has a doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt University and who calls himself "the banker to the poor," and his Grameen Bank will share the award, including its $1.4 million prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday. The honor will formally be bestowed in ceremonies Dec. 10.

The Grameen Bank -- which is literally "Bank of the Villages" -- makes so-called microcredit loans to people without financial security with the idea the poor, and in particular poor women, have underutilized talents.

The bank made its first loans in 1976 and now has some 2,100 branches. Of the more than 6 million borrowers, about 96 percent are women. Loans total some $5.3 billion, of which more than 98 percent was repaid.

The Nobel committee cited Yunus and Grameen Bank for "their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be peace unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means."

U.S. researchers won the 2006 Nobel prizes for medicine, chemistry, physics and economics and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk was selected for the literature honor.