Editing Microcredit (section)

=== United States ===
In the United States, microcredit has generally been defined as loans of less than $50,000 to people—mostly entrepreneurs—who cannot, for various reasons, borrow from a bank. Most nonprofit microlenders include services like financial literacy training and business plan consultations, which contribute to the expense of providing such loans but also, those groups say, to the success of their borrowers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/business/microcredit-for-americans.html|title=Microcredit for Americans|first=Shaila|last=Dewan|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 29, 2013|access-date=May 10, 2018|archive-date=May 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511015012/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/business/microcredit-for-americans.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One such organization in the United States, the [[Accion U.S. Network]] is a nonprofit microfinance organization headquartered in New York, [[New York City|New York]]. It is the largest and only nationwide nonprofit microfinance network in the US. The Accion U.S. Network is part of Accion International, a US-based nonprofit organization operating globally, with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to create or grow healthy businesses. The domestic Accion programs started in [[Brooklyn]], New York, and grew from there to become the first nationwide network microlender.<ref>[[Accion U.S. Network]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2018}} US microcredit programs have helped many poor but ambitious borrowers to improve their lot. The Aspen Institute's study of 405 microentrepreneurs indicates that more than half of the loan recipients escaped poverty within five years. On average, their household assets grew by nearly $16,000 during that period; the group's reliance on public assistance dropped by more than 60%.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://hbr.org/1999/11/can-microcredit-work-in-the-united-states |title=Can Microcredit Work in the United States? |date=1 November 1999 |journal=Harvard Business Review |last1=Bhatt |first1=Nitin |last2=Painter |first2=Gary |last3=Tang |first3=Shui-Yan |access-date=March 7, 2018 |archive-date=March 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307151030/https://hbr.org/1999/11/can-microcredit-work-in-the-united-states |url-status=live }}</ref> Several corporate sponsors including Citi Foundation and Capital One launched Grameen America in New York. Since then the financial outfit—not bank—has been serving the poor, mainly women, throughout four of the city's five boroughs ([[The Bronx|Bronx]], Brooklyn, [[Manhattan]], and [[Queens]]) as well as Omaha, Nebraska and Indianapolis, Indiana. In four years, Grameen America has facilitated loans to over 9,000 borrowers valued over $35 million. It has had, as Grameen CEO Stephen Vogel notes, "a 99 percent repayment rate".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/elmirabayrasli/2012/03/26/microfinance-in-america/#1714c90846e8|title=Microfinance in America?|first=Elmira|last=Bayrasli|website=forbes.com|access-date=May 10, 2018|archive-date=May 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511014355/https://www.forbes.com/sites/elmirabayrasli/2012/03/26/microfinance-in-america/#1714c90846e8|url-status=live}}</ref>