The blue spiral-bound book in the Manhattan office of Women’s World Banking Chief Executive Officer Mary Ellen Iskenderian preserves advice from a little-known microfinance expert: President Barack Obama’s mother.
The report is as relevant now as when Ann Dunham, an anthropologist who campaigned for financial services for the poor, researched a rural credit program at Bank Rakyat Indonesia 20 years ago, Iskenderian says. Dunham wrote that a lender shouldn’t refinance loans just to boost its performance, or give customers more money than they can handle. The CEO says she’ll heed that counsel as she leads the nonprofit where Dunham once worked in a new direction, by starting a private equity fund.
