Hungary’s “bank of the poor” will issue its first loans this week.
Raiffeisen Bank has provided Ft 400 million for the project, through which micro ventures can receive credit between Ft 300,000 and Ft 1 million, without any requirement to offer collateral or prove their income.
The project was developed by the Polgár Opportunities Foundation, as founded and overseen by ex-commercial banker András Polgár. The foundation will send special social workers to set up co-operative groups of poor aspiring business people, most of them Roma.
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